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VOLUME TEN

1917

The Tr^elogiie Bureau

CHICAGO NEW YORK

All rights reser\ed

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

Cdpitdl of Korea

^HE CITY of Seoul is the quaintest I have ever
seen. A visit to the Korean capital is one
of the choicest tidbits on the menu of modern travel.

The usual approach to Korea is by way of Nagasaki, in a
Japanese steamer which first touches Fusan, a thriving port
at the southern end of the peninsula that we call Korea but
which is known to the Japanese as "Cho-Sen" — "The
Land of the Morning Freshness, ' ' and to its own people by

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THE
EX-EMPEROR

OF TA-HAN

the newer name of "Ta-han," bestowed upon
the land by its late Emperor, Heui Yi, when,
as a result of the war between Japan and
China, he found himself monarch of an inde-
pendent country. He had been formerly King
of Korea, vassal to the Emperor ot
China and to the Mikado of Japan. But
on the conclusion of the war, Korea
was declared an Empire, with the new
title of Ta-han, while the ruler raised
himself from the rank of King to that
of Emperor, so he might reign in Seoul
as the equal of their
Imperial majesties of
Dai Nippon and of
the Middle Kingdom,
whose capitals are
Tokyo and Peking.

The port of
^ Fusan, distant
;;■ one day's

voyage

Photograph by /. H. Morris

from Nagasaki, is as Jap
anese in aspect as any
city in Japan itself. The
houses, shops, and tem-
ples are precisely like the
houses, shops, and temples
of Nagasaki; the people in the
streets wear the dress and speak

By permission

ONE OF THE IMPERIAL I'KINCES

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

the language of the Mikado's land. They have been here in
force for more than three hundred years ; since the great
invasion in 1 592 they have never relinquished this foothold
on the continent of Asia. Wise indeed in their forethought,

ui !■ mi-i-"u

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

JAPANESE COLONY AT FUSAN

for there is now a railway in construction that will make this
obscure port one of the termini of the Trans-Asiatic line, sur-
passing Vladivostok and Port Arthur in point of proximity to
the main traveled waterways of the Far Eastern Seas.

l-IvAViNG CUl-FU

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

NIPPON VUSEN KAISHA

But we approach Korea not from the Japanese, but from
the Chinese, side. We sail from Taku, Peking's port ; trans-
ship at Chi-Fu, and cross the entrance to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li
on a steamer of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, — the Royal Mail
Line of Japan, — for the enterprise of Japan is as conspicuous
in Korean waters as upon Korean shores. The ship threads
her way toward Chemulpo, the chief port of Korea, through

lo SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

an enchanted archipelago — a constellation of shimmering
islands set in the placid firmament of a deep, calm, silent
sea. Isle after isle glides by — some rocky, savage, and
fantastic, some soft, inviting, and luxuriant, but all appar-
ently unpeopled ; and the sea itself is lonely as a desert ; — no
signs of life, no ships, no junks ; and yet we are within an
hour's sail of Korea's busiest and most important port.
Surely the people of Ta-han must fear the sea which washes
three sides of their land, or else these waters would not be
left for the exclusive furrowing of foreign keels.

We are already in full view of Chemulpo before we see
the first Korean craft — a sampan that has ventured out to
meet the ship. The boatmen, however, do not lack daring,
for they drive the little boat full tilt at the passing steamer,
strike the hull just forward of the gangway, and then as the
big hull brushes past, two men succeed in gripping ropes or
railings and swing themselves with monkey-like agility up to
the deck. Meantime their fellows have made fast a rope,
and the sampan is trailing gaily in our wake at the end of a
long tow-line. Other acrobatic sampan men repeat this
maneuver, boarding our ship like pirates in their eagerness to

AN ENCHANTED ARCHIPK1.AGO

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

BOARDERS

solicit the patronage of disembarlcing
passengers. Not i^nowing that a
steam-launch is provided by the
steamship company, we hire
an unnecessary sampan, and
then in company with half
a dozen other sampans,
we go trailing shore-
ward, towed by the
tender to which the
crafty skippers have
passed their lines, thus
saving themselves a long
hard pull against the ebb-
ing tide. Thus we ap
proached Chemulpo under
the flag of the Royal Jap-
anese mail. We note that the
official in the little white gig —the
"tide-waiter " of the port, who boards
all arriving ships — is a Japanese.

The most conspicuous
buildings on the shore are
Japanese. A Japanese
cruiser is at the outer
anchorage. The mer-
chant-ships at the buoys
near the town are flying
the flag of the Empire of
the Rising Sun. But the
people on the pier are new
to us in costume, speech,
and customs. Our ac-
quaintance with the Korean

IN A SAMPAN

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

people begins at the pier, where native stevedores are load-
ing lighters with sacks of rice for export to Japan.

Chemulpo is not an ideal port. It is reached by devious
and treacherous channels, through a confusing archipelago,
where rapid currents, due to the phenomenal tides, sweep to
and fro twice daily, rendering navigation most precarious.
At low water scores of junks and even a few small islands are
left stranded high and comparatively dry on broad mud flats.

THE PIER AT CHEMULPO

The town is semi-European, semi- Japanese. There is a
native quarter inconsiderable and unimportant, but it lies
far from the landing-pier, and its existence is not at first
apparent. There is a so-called European hotel conducted by
a Chinese, but we favor the Japanese yadoya, where we find
the same attentive service as in Japan, the same dainty little
dinners served on tables six inches high, the same soft,
matted floors and translucent paper walls. There is nothing
about the establishment that is not delightfully Japanese.
We forget that we are in Korea, until the next morning when

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

a small eager band of youthful porters, called "gigi boys"
comes to carry our belongings to the railway station.

The gigi boy is an institution. Strapped to his back he
wears a carrying frame, which seems to be a part of his
anatomy — for he is rarely seen without it ; upon it burdens
of all shapes and sizes may be shelved and ride securely.
However small or light the object, it must go on the rack,
for the gigi boy objects to manual labor, and insists on being
free-handed, — possibly to be prepared for prompt defense,

THE JAPANESE HOTEL

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

in the event of a sudden brawl, for the coolies at the port
appeared to be as quarrelsome as they were cowardly.
From Chemulpo, the port, to Seoul, the capital, we go by
rail. The line is about twenty-five miles long. The equip
ment is markedly American ; the stock is owned by a Japan
ese company, but the passengers are unmistakably Korean.
They are for the most part gentlemen clad in long white
coats, with spotless wadded socks and tall black hats, the
latter so curious and complicated that we resolve at once to
buy one that we may take it apart and examine it at leisure.
In the confusion of departure we have time only for an
admiring, amused, and astonished glance at our immacu-
lately robed and gentlemanly fellow-travelers.

The train consists of first-, second-, and third-class
coaches, preceded by a string of empty flat-cars. It is
hauled by a Baldwin locomotive. As we approach the
first suburban station, we see a villa, typically American,
perched on a hilltop. The name "Allendale" on the
station signboard tells us that this must be the summer

'GIGI BOYS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

residence of Dr. Allen, who represented the United States at
the Korean Court for many years.

The country traversed on the way to Seoul is not attract-
ive ; the hills look barren, the valleys uncultivated, and the
villages along the way unpromising, but as we near our des-
tination, the land grows greener, and the sky-line of the
landscape is lifted higher and higher upon the crests of the
granite mountains that surround Korea's capital. The rail-
way station is outside the city walls ; beyond it lie several of
the compact straw-roofed villages that contain a suburban
population nearly equal to the intra-mural. The census of
Seoul and its suburbs gives a total of about three hundred
thousand people, — three hundred thousand fantastic folk, so
strangely dressed, so unlike us in thought and custom, that
nowhere in the world is there a population more congenial
to the lover of the curious and picturesque.

A word as to the pronunciation of the name of the
capital of Korea will not be amiss. It is variously mis-
spoken. English travelers offend the ear with "Sowl."
The French say "Sayoull. " Americans, when cornered,

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

compromise on "Sool," but usually refer to "that big city
in Korea. " And the form " Seeyoul " is not unknown.

If we turn to foreign-residents we find that every old
settler has a pet pronunciation of his own, usually backed
up by an article contributed to that unique and interest-
ing local publication, The Korea Review (formerly the

A SUBURBAN STATION

Repository), a veritable repository of quaint bits of informa-
tion about this curious country. To whom, then, shall we
turn if not to the natives themselves .? I give as my authority
countless Korean lips, when I assert that the people of
Cho-Sen call their capital city '' So-nl," the sound being
precisely that of the English word ' ' soul ' ' dissyllabified.

As we alight from the arriving train at the station of this
singular city of Seoul, a white-robed youth addresses us in
English, and presents a card on which appear the words,

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OK KOREA

"Station Hotel; Excellent Accommodations; Moderate
Prices; Far from the Blare of Military Display"; and in
spite of our predilections for blare of all descriptions, we
follow the suave, long-haired lad to the "Station Hotel, "a
quiet little caravansary established in a series of small Korean
houses, only a few paces from the railway terminus. The
proprietor and his wife are English people, formerly mis-
sionaries in China. Their hotel is more like a cosy little

THE RAILWAY-STATION, SEOUL

home, and under the motherly care of Mrs. Emberly we
found the problem of board and lodging in Korea delightfully
solved ; while Mr. Emberly, with his knowledge of the lan-
guage and customs of Korea and his acquaintance with all
sorts of people, native and foreign, was of infinite assistance
to us in the pursuit of illustrations and experiences. Even
the Emberly infants, with their native nurses and Korean
playmates, unconsciously assist in furnishing material for
2

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

DR. ALLEN S VILLA

photographic record, as is proved by the picture of their
"Anglo-Korean Express," which comes careering through
the garden until disaster overtakes it at a sharp turn where it
striiies a stump, and sends its passengers sprawHng in the dust.
In the course of our first stroll citywards, curious illustra-
tions of Korean customs and methods are noted at every turn.
Near the hotel we find a gang of laborers beginning an e.xca-
vation ; there are nine men in that gang ; they have only one

FELLOW-PASSENr.ERS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

shovel among them, and yet the entire gang is hard at it
operating that solitary shovel. One man plants the blade
deep in the earth, his eight companions, to the measure of a
chanted song, give vigorous yankings to the ropes attached.

ARRIVAL AT SEOUL

jerking the shovel free and thus shooting the clods of earth
to a considerable distance. And a few paces from the spot
where that crude contrivance is scattering the Korean soil,
we find an American surveyor at work with the latest pattern
of theodolite, taking levels for the preliminary work on a pro-
jected system of water-works and
supply pipes, the contract for
which has recently been given
to an American company.
In line with the surveyor's
instrument is a street that
leads to the West Gate of
Seoul, one of the lesser portals.

TFC AMOLO-KOKEAN F.XPBESS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THE STATION HOTEL

Through that medieval arch run trolley-wires and tram-
car tracks, over it telegraph and telephone wires are fes-
tooned ; for the spider of modern enterprise is spinning its
web of steel about this dormant Oriental metropolis. But

A COZY CARAVANSARY

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

just as the clanging, chunking car comes arrogantly bursting
through the gate, an official sedan-chair, borne silently and
with slow dignity in the opposite direction, tells us that the
manners and methods of the Middle Ages still persist in
this quaint city of Seoul despite the advent of electricity.

Sharp indeed are the contrasts.
The cominonplace twen-
tieth century trol-
ley-cars are filled
with fantastic
personages
wearing the
dress that
was in fash-
ion when

the Ming
monarchs
of Peking
set styles
for China
and for her
tributary states.
The Manchu con-
querors overthrew the

Ming regime, in China, and i"ii koklan "steam shovel"

forced unnumbered millions of Chinese to shave their fore-
heads and to cultivate that snake-like capillary appendage,
which even to-day distinguishes the almond-eyed Celestial.
But when the wave of conquest spread over the vassal king-
dom of Korea, its uncompromising spirit was modified, and

22 SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

the Korean 's coiffure and costume were respected. Coated
with the impervious lacquer of Asiatic conservation, the Korean
gentleman is to-day, in appearance, the same fantastic figure
that he was in 1644. We see comparatively few women in

AN SURVEYOR

the streets. Most of them are shrouded in coats of brilliant
green, which are not put on like coats, but merely thrown over
the head and clutched under the chin, concealing the faces as
do the veils and haiks of Moorish women. The sleeves
which dangle free and empty have white cuffs, while long red
ribbons add a dash of brilliancy to this striking costume.
Sometimes the coat is folded and worn like a tam-o-shanter
on the head ; and this reveals the fact that the dress beneath
the overcoat is not a dress, for it is a pair of baggy trousers.
The coat, however, is not supposed to be the woman 's own ;
although its use by married women is general, the fiction has
it that it is the fighting costume of the husband, which the
faithful wife wears in time of peace — never daring to get

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

coirifortably into it in the ordinary way for fear that in case
of sudden alarm there might be some delay in throwing it
upon her valiant spouse as he rushes forth to battle. The
red ribbons are supposed to have been stained with the blood
of enemies wiped from a dripping sword. The women of the
lower classes are usually too much occupied with babies and
with bundles to bother with the traditiortal green coat.
They show their faces and a clean pair of heels to the
observing stranger as they step briskly past. They carry
burdens on their heads without apparent effort, and probably
without risk of injury to their poor little brains ; for the head
of nearly every woman is provided with a natural pad com-
posed of her own hair and that of several generations of her

TliK WKSl OAIU

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

female ancestors braided into a mass the cubic dimensions
of which are in some cases astonishing. Fortunately Korean
hair is uniform in color, otherwise these braided cushions
would offer chromatic capillary contrasts that would be
unpleasantly conspicuous even in this land of startling sights.
But we have been led away by a dissertation on the
*' eternal feminine ' ' from the trolley-cars in which we intend
to make a preliminary run across the city. The patron of

LATEST FASHIONS

the line is supposed to board the cars only at the stations
where he may secure a ticket, for the Korean conductors are
not allowed to collect cash-fares; — they proved themselves
so clever in "knocking down" Korean nickels that the
management introduced a system of single and fifty-ride
punch-tickets. All Seoul knew of this, and nearly every
soul in Seoul had his yellow street-car ticket on his person ;

SEOUL, THE CAPrrAL OF KOREA

A CSXnjQIAN S t:

but we not being up-to-date on
local matters hail a car
midway between two
stations. The mo-
tor-man obligingly
brings his car to a
standstill. The
conductor in
European uni-
form salutes po-
litely, and before
ringing the bell asks
in hesitating English,
'Ticket have got, gent-
men ; ' ' We reply in the same
style of Oriental English, "Ticket no have got. *' "Ticket
must have." is the next speech. "Ticket gladly will
buy," is our reply. "Money to receive out of my power
is. Ticket hius^ have." is the next effort of the httle
man. Meantime the
passengers begin to
grow impatient.
" But here is money,
four times the fare ;
take it. and move
on, ' ' we insist. Sadly
the timid little cha!^
protests, "Outof ir.
power money to re-
ceive, no can do if
ticket no have got,
p/easc go away. "
And this so pitifully
that we leave the car.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

asking as we do so, " Do you know where

we can buy tickets? " He looks at us

with a helpless smile, his hand upon

the bell-rope, and replies, "Yes,

I know, but it is too difficult

to say ! ' '

Thereupon we return to the
hotel to meet our future guide,
interpreter, and friend, who
will henceforth accompany us
to help us surmount the awk-
ward barriers of language that
rise in the path of the stranger
and the alien. Mr. Pak-Kee-Ho
is the most picturesque cicerone it
has ever been my fortune to employ

THE HAIR OF
SEVERAL GENERATI

He is the best-dressed
guide that ever smiled
into my camera. He
speaks English that
is eminently compre-
hensible, for he was
chief interpreter for
the late General
Greathouse, the
American legal-ad-
viser to the King.
We liked to be seen
with Mr. Pak, al-
though we always
felt ashamed of our
crude, inartistic, and
convenient clothes.

A LADV OF CHO-SEN

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

A TROLLEY-CAR STATION

for he wears exquisite attire immaculately laundered. His
hat of horsehair and split bamboo is of the costlier quality,

A UbV^ Ut iiliAUI Y

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

worth twenty-five or thirty dollars, and his teeth, like those
of all Korean gentlemen, are perfect. The entire nation
has fine teeth : the smiles of rich and poor alike reveal
magnificent rows of well-formed ivories of purest white.
The secret of it all is salt. No toothbrushes are used, no
dental preparations, but every day the teeth are rubbed with
a finger moistened and dipped in common salt. Mr. Pak is

MK. PAK-KEE-HO

a man of family, with a wife, two children, a mother-in-law,
and a maid-servant, yet we command his services for the
equivalent of thirty-seven and a half cents a day. He him-
self fixed the price, said by old residents to be exorbitant ; —
we pay it without a murmur, after the manner of extrava-
gant Americans. His help was worth ten times its cost.
Mrs. Pak may be taken as a fair type of the Korean
woman, placid of expression, gentle and unassuming of

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA 31

manner, respectful, self-effacing, and submissive like all
Asiatic wives. The most important and time-consuming task
of the Korean matron is the laundering of the husband's
dainty dresses. The delicate tulle-like fabric, affected by
the gentleman of fashion, is never ironed ; instead it is beaten
out with a pair of wooden paddles, a process that gives it a
peculiar, much-prized luster. The music of the laundering-
sticks is one of the characteristic sounds of Seoul; — at all

MR. PAK AT HOMK

hours of the day, in all parts of the city, the passer-by is
greeted by that everlasting, xylophonic "rag-time," played
by hundreds of wifely hands, wielding those ironing wands of
wood. No wonder that Mr. Pak wears a smile of broad con-
tent as he reveals to us his happy little home, — a revelation
he would not have made had he shared the prejudices and
beliefs of his neighbors, whose wives are rarely seen by

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THK HOUSE OF THE GREAT BELL

THE BUDDHIST PAGODA

strangers or even by
the masculine friends
of the husband.

With Mr. Pak we
now proceed to see
the sights of Seoul.
The first is the big
bell of Chong-No.
It may be seen by
peering through the
bars of the bell-house,
but it is rarely heard.
Formerly it gave the
signal for the open-
ing and the closing of
the city-gates. Its
boom was once re-
garded as a voice of
command, regulating
the daily life of the

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

A UNIQUE ARTISTIC MONUMENT

metropolis ; but
now the gates
cannot be shut
until the trolley-
cars stop running,
and the nightly
"owl-car, "being
quite as uncer-
tain here as else-
where, the dis-
gusted bell has
lapsed into indig-
nant silence, and
broods upon the evils brought upon the city by the electric
chariots introduced by the new traction-syndicate.

Another sight of Seoul is a Buddhist monument, an
ornate marble pagoda with curious figures in relief on every
face and panel. It was a gift from a Chinese Emperor
whose daughter married a Korean King long years ago, — so
long ago, Mr. Pak assures me, that no one knows anything
about the event. But it is common knowledge that the

Japanese invaders when they came

to Seoul three hundred years

ago undertook to carry it

off as a war-trophy.

They removed the

topmost tiers, which

now rest near the

base, and then

abandoned their

attempt. Nearby

is another curious

stone in the form of a

fat tortoise supporting

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

APPROAri! TO rilF. 'M

a tall tablet. For many years the pagoda and the tortoise
were hidden in the maze of narrow alleys of a poverty-
stricken quarter, but this has been recently cleared away
to make room for a projected public garden of which these

MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING MASONRY

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THE PALACK WALL

long-lost marble curios will be the chief attraction ; the
modernizing of Seoul is inevitable.

The great sight of Seoul is the
Imperial Palace, a modest rep-
lica of the Forbidden City
in Peking. The avenue
of approach is long and
wide, bordered by the
low structures housing
the various depart-
ments of the govern-
ment. The back-
ground is imposing, a
range of tall sharp
peaks over which the
city walls go climbing in
sweeping zigzags, hang-
ing like long festoons of
masonry from every crest.

A COK.-^i.K :uUl^R

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

The main gate
of the Imperial
City is definitely
closed. The pal-
ace is abandoned,
as a place ac-
cursed, a place of
tragic memories.
The emperor may
be pardoned for
refusing to set
foot again within its precincts, for the last years of his
sojourn there were years of mental torture, of violence and
terror. The ferocious, grinning lions stationed at the gate
are there to ward off conflagrations, evil influences, and all
manner of misfortune, but their grimaces were as unavailing
as those of the array of little figures perched on the tiled

GUARDIAN OI'- THK PALACE GATE

REAL FAIRYLAND

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA 37

Toofs of the gates and towers. Those Httle porcelain apes
and pigs and demons seen on every royal roof are used as
"Spirit Scare-crows." Their fantastically repellent pres-
ence on the housetop is supposed to discourage the efforts
of unwelcome spirits to install themselves under the roof on
which the comic little sentries sit. We find them even on

THK IMPBRIAL AUDIKNCB HALL

the roof of the Imperial Audience Hall, looking like lines of
small boys glissading down the ridges of the roofs. But
faith in their saving powers must have been rudely shaken
by the events that have transpired here in this splendid home
of Korean Majesty. For as we look upon the empty throne
of the Emperor in the great, gorgeous hall, we recall the
trouble and the tragedy that have marked his unhappy reign

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

Vassal to China, by virtue of an oath taken by one of his
ancestors in the dim, almost prehistoric past ; vassal to
Japan by virtue of the semimythical conquest of Korea by
a woman Mikado in the year 202 b. c. and of the well-
authenticated conquest by Hideyoshi's army in 1592, the
ill-starred King of Korea found himself, in 1894, helpless
between two rival sovereign nations, both of which claimed
the right to send their troops into Korea to quell a small
rebellion in the. southern provinces. China dispatched her
troops in transports without notifying Japan in advance, as
she was bound to do by an old agreement. Japan, proud of
her modern ships and well-drilled regiments, eager to play
with her new fighting-toys, seized this convenient opportun-
ity and poured her marvelously efficient forces into the penin-
sula. Qujck work was made of the Chinese pretensions in
Korea. The. j, Celestial army routed at Ping Yang ; the
Celestial fleet annihilated at the Yalu River ; the modern
forts at Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei captured ; this is the

story of Japan 's rapid and
victorious campaign.

Thus the royal gentle-
man who dwells amid the
lotus-ponds of the palace

<*« <■

THE SUMMER PAVILION

THE IMPERIAL THRONE

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

park of Seoul found himself, de-
spite himselt, absolveil from
his vassalage to China, and
also to Japan who volun-
tarily renounced her
claims, substitutinfj,
however, for the shad-
ow of feudal rights,
the substance of a mili-
tary occupation of the
country. She then pro-
ceeded to reform Korea
with lightning-like rapidity,
attempting to accomplish
here, among a conservative
people, the marvelous work of

IN THR PALACH PARK

AN ABANDON!-:!) PALACB

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THE LOTUS-POND

modernization, which had proved so successful in Japan.
Sweeping indeed were the reforms she forced upon the timid,

FANC:PUL ARCHITECTURK

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

startled Hermit Na-
tion which she had
roused from medieval
dreams; a new consti-
tution ; the Christian
calendar ; abolition
of hereditary office-
holding, of child-
marriages, and of
slavery; establish-
ment of Sunday as a
day of rest ; modifi-
cation of all sorts of
old laws and customs,
compelling the short-
ening of the long
pipes of the nobles,
and, worst of all, the
cutting off of the na-
tional topknot, that
tightly twisted tuft of
hair cultivated upon
the crown of every
male Korean and re-
garded by him as the
mark of manhood ; this was the unkindest cut of all.

The poor king, practically a prisoner of the reforming
enthusiasts from Japan, signed one tradition-killing edict after
another, to the horror and amazement of his people. He
was the first to cut his hair ; the royal topknot was the first
to fall. Then, to keep the ball of Progress rolling, men were
stationed at the palace gates, with long keen shears to clip
the topknots from the head of every noble, prince, or com-
moner who entered. At the city-gates other deputy barbers,

liy permission

THE FATHER OF THE LATE EMPEROR

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

WHERE THE QUEEN

WAS MURUEREI

supported by the military,
seized the peasants as
they came to town,
and forcibly de-
prived them of
their medieval
coiffure. And
this went on until
a famine threat-
ened, for, the news
spreading to the coun-
try districts, the farmers
ceased to come to town. They
retaliated for the cutting off of topknots by the cutting off of
food-supplies. Then the official shearers went abroad in the
land, reaping a hairy harvest, but sowing in every shorn head
the seeds of sedition and hatred of the Japanese reformers.
At last the obnoxious clipping ceased. The Japanese thought
best to recall their capillary gleaners while pressing the political
and economic reforms. But no apparent progress was made ;
an unseen hand had thrust a stick into the wheels of the
reform machinery. The numerous
useless officials and palace-serv-
ants who had been dis-
missed, as a matter of
economy, reappeared
and began to draw their
salaries as before.
The Japanese reforms
stood, on paper, but
promised to remain
ineffectual, all because
one clever woman was
opposed to them. That

WHERE THE QUEEN WAS CREMATED

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA 47

woman was the Queen, a daughter of the Chinese clan of the
Mings. She commanded the confidence of all the old con-
servatives and court parasites, as well as the blind obedience
of the doting King, whom she had ruled for many years.

She had succeeded to that dominant place in the direc-
tion of affairs that had been held in earlier years by the
father of the king, the famous Tai Wen Koon, who for
a time was more than King himself. That most astute
of native politicians was ruler of the land during and even
after the minority of his son, the present monarch, who was
not born to the purple but had been appointed King. The
Tai Wen Koon was to Korea what the Empress Dowager has
been to China — the power behind and above the imperial
throne. But his supremacy was temporarily eclipsed. The

WHERE THE QUEEN S ASHES U K.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

royal daughter-in-law was all-powerful within the palace,
the Japanese reformers controlled the administration.

Meantime the country was distracted. The King was
overwhelmed by the impossible task of reconciling the
progressive policy of his self-appointed liberators and
mentors from Japan, and the obstinate conservatism of
his entourage. It was evident that so long as the Queen
lived and ruled the King, reform must remain a dead letter.
A deed that stained the honor of Japan removed the arch

IMPERIAL BUILDINGS

enemy of progress. With the connivance of the Mikado's
forces a mob, in which were mingled both Koreans and Japan-
ese, was permitted to break into the palace. Several of the
palace women, mistaken for the Queen, were killed in the
confusion. The King took refuge in the corner room of
the Queen's private pavilion. There he was overpowered and
the Queen was killed before his eyes. Her body was carried
to the adjacent grove of pines, drenched with petroleum, and
burned on the spot now marked by a simple shrine. The

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

^^^^'^

^^^^^^^H -s «^

AT THE UNITED STATES LEGATION

remains were utterly consumed save for a finger, which was
found later caught in a casement of the room where she had
struggled with her murderers. The ashes were scattered
upon the surface of a lotus-pond. Therefore the real tomb of

RbSlUtNCK OK TMK MIMSTbR OF
THE HOUSEHOLD DRPART.MENT

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

Korea's queen is marked by the pagoda on an island in that
pond, while the mausoleums which we are soon to visit mark
the successive resting-places of the one little finger that
escaped the fury of the regicides. Thereafter for a year the
terrorized King, practically a prisoner, was coerced by the
triumphant radical party to dishonor the Queen's memory

with defamatory proclamations, reducing her posthumously
to the rank of servant. For a time the royal father, the once
ultra-conservative, progress-hating Tai Wen Koon, became a
leader among the rabid radicals. Meantime Japan, ashamed
of the part played by her ill-chosen, overzealous emissaries,
recalled her troops and officials, leaving the Korean revolu-

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

tionaries to carry out the reforms with which she had hoped
to bless the nation. But one morning the party in power
awoke to find itself proscribed ; the King had escaped from
the palace, thanks to a clever scheme planned by the palace
ladies. Dressed as a woman, he was smuggled away in a
sedan-chair to the Russian Legation, where for a year he held

STKR SANDS' GARDEN

his court under the protection of the Russian representative
and a guard of marines from a Russian ship-of-war. Within
twenty-four hours of his escape, the ministers who had held
him captive were either killed or forced to flee. Two were
hacked to pieces by a loyal mob in the main street. Then
came another rain of edicts and proclamations, declaring null

52 SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

and void all that had been done and ordered by the King while
in the power of his enemies. For a few years the King in his
new dignity as Emperor lived in a new palace in a restricted
enclosure, under the very shadow of the legations of the for-
eign powers, in whom by turns he put his trust. At one
time we hear of secret passages leading from the palace to
one legation, or of gates devised to facilitate his flight into

THE POWER-HOUSE

the gardens of another. But in no one did the Emperor
place more implicit confidence than in his next-door neigh-
bor, Dr. H. N. Allen, Minister of the United States. Dr.
Allen has been many years in Korea, first as a missionary,
then as a physician to the court, and finally as our diplo-
matic representative. From the staff of the American lega-
tion the King chose many of his foreign advisers. A for-
mer Charg6 d'Affaires, Mr. Sands, was once Minister of the

o
ui

<
o
u

3
X

S
H

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

Imperial Household Department, practically a member of
the cabinet, treated with as much respect as a Korean noble,
and housed in a luxurious residence on a height that over-
looks the palace of his Imperial Master.

Other foreigners in Korean service have done the state
some service. Prominent among them is Mr. MacLeavy
Brown, a subject of Great Britain, in charge, of the Imperial

AN AMERICAN HOME

Customs. Another man who has become a power in the
land is Mr. Bostwick, the leading spirit of the Seoul Electric
Railway Company, an American syndicate that not only
controls the local trolley-line, but has introduced electric
lighting, water-works, and paved roads. The American power-
houses are sending thrills of electrifying energy along the
deadened nerves of this sleepy and secluded capital.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

We dined with Mr. and Mrs. Bostwick in their pretty
little house, where every night a dinner, such as one would
not expect to find this side of Fifth Avenue, is spread in the
glow of incandescent lamps ; and after dinner, while the

AN AMERICAN GARDEN

hostess at the piano runs over the latest importations from
the music-stores of San Francisco, we watch from the win-
dows the fantastic lanterns of the funeral processions that
file past always after dark, and we shudder as the uncanny
chorus of the hired mourners breaks in upon the lovey-dovey
measures of the sextet from " Florodora. "

Another American home is that of the chief engineer of
the Electric Company, where hospitality is dispensed by
another charming hostess, who has created a little corner
suggestive of California, in a garden just outside the walls
of the Korean Capital.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

The missionaries of religion are here, as well as those ot
science and material progress. But that is another story,
which I shall not attempt to tell although it merits well the
telling. Sufficient to say that the Catholics have been here
for more than a hundred years, enduring many persecutions.
Their churches occupy the most coinmandin.^ sites. The
Protestants, although more recently arrived, are already well
established in buildings that are as admirable in intent as
they are inartistic in design. On esthetic grounds Korea
would be justified in demolishing the hideous buildings with
which the unpardonable bad taste of the foreigner has dis-
figured the most conspicuous elevations within the city walls.
But quite as hideously ir.congruous as the missionary build-
ings are the trolley-cars of Seoul. They should have been
made to look like dragons, or junks, or sedan-chairs on
wheels, but alas ! the uncompromising spirit of the white
man imposes on all the Oriental lands he conquers commer-
cially or industrially the stamp of utilitarian ugliness, which
he regards as the sign and badge
of Occidental civilization.

The trolley-car has be-
gun the revolution of city
life in Seoul. It has
prevailed where Im-
perial commands,
backed by the mili-
tary of Japan had
failed, — namely,
in the matter of
the topknot. The
manager of the
company had but to
say the word and the
motor-men and the

A l-ASIIIONAULK KQVlPAl.li

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

conductors quietly clipped off their cherished topknots and
donned the uniform caps of foreign fashion. But even the
"trolley reforms " have not been accomplished without some
opposition ; there have been strikes and riots and popular
demonstrations against the modernization of Seoul. Yet many
time-honored customs are now obsolete. Formerly the gates
were closed at night ; at eight o 'clock the great bell gave the

THE NEW OFFICES OF THE TRACTION SYNDICATE

signal for all men to retire from the streets, which then became
till midnight the property of the Korean women, who had
been all day confined by custom to their homes. There were
many women who had never seen the streets except by night,
and there were few men who knew the streets save in their
daytime aspect. Men's only passports to the streets at night
were total blindness or a prescription to be filled at the near-
est drug-shop. But now the women walk abroad by day and

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

AN OFFICIAL CHAIR

men stay out nights, as in more civilized communities. In
fact, the latter seem to be resolved to make up for keeping
early hours in the past by sleeping out all night in the streets.
The tram-car track is their favorite couch, for the rail is
shaped like the pillow on which Korean sleepers rest the

A TKOU.EY-CAK

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

neck, and like it, is extremely hard. We often saw long
rows of white-clad citizens, like prostrate ghosts, laid out
on mats of straw, snoring in ecstasy, their necks reposing
on the cool, and, to them, comfortable rails.

One night the 11:30 owl-car was delayed. The lodgers
on its beat, not knowing that it had not passed, retired at
the usual hour. The tragic results were two decapitations
and a tumult. Thereupon the company posted on every
trolley-pole in town a proclamation declaring that no one
would be per litted to sleep upon the track, and that the
rails were private property, not public pillows. The plac-
ards were deciphered by indignant citizens ; the prohibition
was declared an interference with the rights of individuals ;
the posters were torn down or scratched off during the fol-
lowing night. Then, a riot being imminent, the company
capitulated, and the triumphant populace continues to enjoy
the night air with their necks upon the chilly steel, heroic-
ally defying the electric guillotine. And now the owl-car runs
on schedule-time or else defers its homeward trip till morning.

THl^ tASr GATK

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

RKSTINC. ON THli CITY WALL

Could cinematograph pictures be projected on the pages
of this book, or exhibited by means of some simple little
instrument that could be operated on the library-table (and
this now bids fair to be soon accomplished), then one of our
motion-pictures would at this juncture reproduce for the
reader the sensations we enjoyed while dashing along the

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

thoroughfares of Seoul on one of those swift trolleys, first
toward the East Gate from the straw-roofed suburbs,^ the
gate looming bigger and bigger, until at last we curve
through a courtyard, and plunge into the tunnel-like arch
from wjjich we emerge to skim straight away up the main
street of Seoul, scaring horses, and spreading dismay among
the white-robed denizens of the Korean Capital. But pend-
ing the perfecting of the device that will bring the living.

illustrations produced by animated photography within the
circle of the family reading-lamp, there revealing the very
life of foreign lands, we must be content with pictures that
suggest movement even if they do not reproduce it.

I wonder if those who read these words appreciate the
value of motion-pictures as a means of recording life as
it is hved in this century, that those who live in the next

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

may actually sec the livi)igr figures of men and women who
lived in the same world a hundred years before ?

Life is indeed the most profitable study in the world, for
all life is divine ; and he who loves not everything that lives
is unworthy of his portion of the joy of living. To picture
life is the end and aim of art. Biography — the writing of

EARLV COMERS

life — is the end and aim of literature. To record life in
such a way that every gesture, movement, and expression of
one man or of a hundred men may be reproduced at will and
make that man or that multitude appear to live again and
reenact their parts, this is the end and aim of the art-science
of motion-photography. Motion-photography is, in the truest

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

sense — Biography. Is it not the writing of life in a uni-
versal language — that of action ? Rich men are founding
libraries of all kinds ; why not a Biographical library in this
new sense ; an institution where the life and manners and
events of the present, recorded on the scrolls of cinemato-
graphic film, shall be preserved for the study and information

THK MORNING MARKKT

of posterity ? Think what it would mean could we to-day
behold upon the screen, the moving semblance of Shakes-
peare, observe the step and gesture of George Washington,
see the bitter smile of Bonaparte, or even study the panto-
mime of the great actors of the past! We have scores of
portraits of George Washington painted by great artists,

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

engravings by men of mark ; but every portrait is unlike every
other, and we know not which represents the man himself.
A motion-portrait would show him to us as he appeared in
life to his contemporaries. I crave a few of the generous
millions now being transformed into libraries, for a Library of
Cinematographic Records, thanks to which posterity will find
it possible to awake the ghosts of all the great men of this
and intervening generations, and to cause the people of

THK PRINCIPAL THOROUGHFARB

to-day, and of to-morrow, the people of all lands and all
races, — some of which may then be extinct — to play their
parts anew, and thus bring into close and intimate compari-
son the personality of individuals and the manners and pecul-
iarities of multitudes separated from one another by a long
lapse of years. Time and space are not barriers to vision ;
for example, have we not shown upon the magic screen in
the great cities of America, the Korean crowds of hundreds

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

of our fellow-creatures reenacting their unconscious little
comedy of customs as they had played it many months
before, eight thousand miles away, on the other side of the
world, in the streets of a city few of us had ever seen?

IN' THK STREET

There is much contrast in the streets of Seoul, for some
are wide as the boulevards of Paris, others as narrow as the
alleys of Canton. The excellent condition of the main arter-
ies is due to the efforts of an official who tried to realize at
home what he had seen in Washington while acting as
Korean minister. He cleared the wide streets of the shacks
and shanties which had sprung up there like mushrooms
under the tolerance of corrupt officials ; he paved the thor-
oughfares, and made and enforced ordinances for their care
and preservation. Therefore the streets of Seoul, which
formerly were worse even than those of Peking, are now
better than those of any native city in the Orient. The

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

passing show is always interesting. Just let us glance a mo-
ment at the passers-by, so queerly clad, so curiously mannered.
Note the coolies, bearing on their backs burdens of amaz-
ing bulk, but light in weight, for they are stacks of empty
baskets of bamboo covered with yellow paper. Observe the
bulls buried in loads of brush and firewood, like oxen ready
for a barbecue. And then look at the hats J Let us begin
with the biggest, almost a yard square, made of straw and
worn by a peasant. But the rough straw hat of the farmer
which costs only two or three cents must not be confounded
with the elegant creation assumed by gentlemen when they
go into mourning upon the loss of a near relative.

m I K^■ HiRnKNS

The loss of a father is a calamity, its bitterness enhanced
by the isolation to which it dooms the bereaved son, who
for three full years must wear a long grass-cloth coat, hide
his mournful brow beneath a scalloped roof of straw, and

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

screen his tear-dimmed eyes by holding to his face a square
of yellow grass-fabric, stretched on two slender sticks. Thus
he must keep his form and features from the gaze of men for
the prescribed period of one thousand and ninety-five days.

Korea is indeed the land of hats, and every hat has its
significance. But first of all, whence comes the conven-
tional headgear of the Korean gentleman .■" — that curious
cone of horsehair or split bamboo on a bamboo frame, so deli-
cate, so inconvenient, and so picturesque ! Like all things
interesting, it is the result of evolution. Once upon a time,
— for the story goes a long way back, back to the days of
feudal strife, of clashing clans, pretenders to the throne and
rival claimants for the favors of the king — once upon a time
a wise king hit upon a plan to tame his quarrelsome lords and
princes and put a check upon conspiracies. " If men cannot

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

FIRKWOOD

put their heads together, they cannot conspire," said this
king; "therefore, my lords, you must wear hats so big that
you will have to shout to one another. ' ' He prescribed the
size and shape of hats for all his subjects, and made the con-
stant wearing of the hat obligatory. The removal of it was
regarded as an act of treason ; injury to the hat brought deep
disgrace upon the wearer. Thus fighting and conspiracy
were snuffed out by those hats which were so big that men
could not converse save in loud tones, and dared not fight
because the hat was made of pottery, and a broken hat meant
a broken fortune at court. For years all male Koreans
tottered around under the weight of flaring hats as big and
breakable as punch-bowls. Then times began to change,
and the Korean hat began its evolution. Gradually the
pottery hat fell into "innocuous desuetude," a well-merited
fate, and finally the fantastic fly-traps of to-day emerged tri-
umphant in their elegance and comfort, with which are still

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

combined some of the essential bigness and breakability. It
is still quite impossible for a Korean to indulge in a brawl
without accumulating evidence thereof in the form of dam-
aged headgear. It is bad form, even to-day, to uncover the
head. Hats on, in doors and out — this is the rule of courtesy.
So much for the why and wherefore of the hat. Now for
the thing itself. It is of three composite parts : First the

BOV'S HEADS AND MEN'S HATS

fillet of woven horsehair bound around the head so tightly
that it keeps all ideas out. It confines the upturned hair
gathered to form an erect topknot ; over this is placed a cap
of conical shape with a sort of terrace in front, and over this
in turn the broad-brimmed glossy hat, now immutable in
form, but of a hundred varying qualities ; for hats which look
to us precisely similar may cost anywhere from two to
forty dollars. No male Korean, no matter what his age, i?

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

regarded as a man till he has duly donned the hat that
enshrines the sacred topknot. No man may don the hat
until he has assumed the topknot and is prepared to marry.
A professed bachelor is not regarded as a man even though
he live a hundred years. He remains in the estimation of his
fellows a mere unsophisticated boy, and is treated as a boy
and like a boy must go bareheaded, his hair parted in the
middle and plaited down his back. This coiffure gives the

MORE HEADS AND HATS

boys of Seoul a feminine but not effeminate appearance, and
foreign visitors frequently remark upon the boldness of the
pretty little torn-boy girls' with whom they have been flirting.
But when the boy becomes engaged, which sometimes hap-
pens even at the tender age of ten or twelve, he is then
prospectively a man, distinguished from his playmates who
have no definite matrimonial prospects, by the wearing of a
hat similar in form to the man's hat, but made of yellow

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

straw. A proud young fiance, crowned with the ante-nup-
tial hat and robed in the traditional pink dress, is no infre-
quent figure in the throng. Juvenile benedicts-to-be enjoy
all the freedom given to the boys and most of the distinction
accorded to men, and as a result carry themselves with a cer-
tain amount of reserve and dignity, their childhood hid away be-
neath the hat and their playful instincts tied up in the topknot.
Still another form of hat is the translucent crown of yel-
lowish oiled-paper, seen usually in rainy weather ; it is
merely a waterproof cover designed to protect the precious
hat ; it may be taken off, folded like a fan, and stowed away
as easily as we should close an ordinary umbrella.

Photograph by j. H. Morris

TAKING COMFORT

The South Gate is the chief landmark of Seoul, a busy
meeting-place for the tides that flow from the city to the
suburbs and from the suburbs to the city. Gates in the
Orient are held in high respect. They usually bear bom-
bastic names ; and the gates of Seoul, which we call simply

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

A CkoWI)

the West, East, or South Gates, are known to the natives
as the Portals of ' ' Bright Amia-
biHty, " " High Ceremony
or " Elevated Humanity. "
Out through the South
Gate we were speed-
ing one day, on a
special car provided
by the company, to
facilitate our cine-
matographic work,
when to our horror
we beheld a bull-cart
stuck fast in the track,
making a collision very _

THE SOUTH GATE

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

THli AVERTED CATASTROPHE

imminent ; but, continuing to turn the crank of our instru-
ment, we completed the picture to an anxious finish, the
car stopping just in time to spare the bull, and
incidentally, avoid a shaking up that might have |
been disastrous. Then, after
the balky bull has been led
to a place of safety, and the
old cart with its sprawling
wheels has been backed away,
we continue our interrupted
trolley party, whizzing out
through the suburbs and
along the country roads to
a pretty village on the
banks of the broad,
placid river Han.

KOREAN " KIDS "

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

The river towns are picturesque, the vistas from the
bluffs are characterized by freshness and calm that may have
suggested the old native name of Korea, "Cho-sen," which
means the "Country of the Morning Calm," or "Land of
Morning Freshness. ' ' The Korean climate is one of the
most perfect in the world, a fitting climate for a land of
gentle aspect where peace broods upon the hills and valleys
and silence rests upon the waters. We register a vow that

sometime we will come to this strange land with that most
precious asset of the traveler — time, plenty of time — and
invest it wisely, sailing away up a wide river into the almost
unknown interior provinces, into the Korea of yesterday, to
which few echoes of the outer world have penetrated.

But for the present there is enough of interest within a
few miles of the walls of Seoul to yield us generous dividends
upon our very small preliminary investment. Not far from

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

the West Gate stand two significant constructions, marking
tlie beginning of the road that leads to China, the road along
which travelers make their way from Seoul to Peking, the
journey occupying many weeks. Two naked pillars are the
sole remnants of an arch where the Korean King was wont
to receive the emissaries of the Emperor of China and to do
them homage as a subject and a vassal of the monarch

By permission

BRIDGK OVER THE HAN

at Peking. The characters upon the new arch tell of its
significance; for they read, "Standing Alone"; that is to
say, "Korea is now independent." The road cuts through
a range of hills and disappears, tempting us to follow it at
least a little way on its long trip to the Celestial Capital.
Accordingly we find ourselves a little later in the cut called
the Peking Pass, through which a constant stream of country
folk is flowing. Carts laden with big stones for the new

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA 8i

I HK PEKING PASS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

palace come creaking down the hill, the poor bulls, aided by
the driver, striving to hold back the crushing weight and
keep the clumsy contrivance under control on the steep

AN ANCESTRAL TOMB

grades. But even the combined efforts of the man and bull
in front could not prevent a catastrophe were it not for the
help afforded by another man and another bull behind. The
second animal is harnessed backwards to the rear of the
vehicle and backs down hill, keeping the stern-hawsers taut ;
for when they slacken, the man tightens the line made fast
to a ring in the bull's nose, and thus in an attempt to save
his nose the bull acts as a brake on the descending cart.
Even in the open country we encounter the Korean
gentleman in his immaculate white clothes, strolling along
with a semipompous air as if the world belonged to him and
he were out to have a look at his property. He loves to

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

spend long hours with his fellows in idle contemplation near
some suburban spring ; for the Koreans are immensely fond
of nature and have boundless faith in pure spring water as a
panacea. But at the same time he regards all water as
pure ; that water, the cleansing element, can itself be dirty,
is something the average native cannot understand. He
makes of his family-tombs a place of frequent pilgrimages,
which partake more of the nature of picnics. Rich men
and nobles have elegant little houses near the ancestral
necropolis, where they can spend the summer days in comfort

YE CHAI S<K)N

84 SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

aiid entertain their friends as at a country villa. While
we were lingering in the burial grove of a noble family, a
servant approaches, asks our names and nationality, retires,
and then returns to inform us that the Prince Ye Chai Soon,

A PRINCELY HOST

a cousin to the Emperor, familiarly known as the "Fat
Prince," is in the " Resting House " near at hand and will
be pleased to receive the foreign gentleman.

The prince, a portly man, who in spite of his strange
dress and his fantastic gauze-hat, has something the manner
of a modern clubman, greets us at the door, leads us down
to a delicious spring, and bids us drink of the life-giving
waters, telling us that whenever he feels ill, he withdraws
from town to pass a week in contemplation and water-drink-
ing near his grandmother's grave. Then he invites us into

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

his neat and trim little summer cottage. The rooms are not
unlike those of a Japanese house in their simplicity and bare-
ness. There are straw mats on the floor, but underneath
them is a carpet of tough Korean paper. There are slid-
ing-screens of translucent paper as windows, other sliding-
screens of opaque paper to darken the interior, and, hooked
up to the ceiling, stout paper-clad partitions that may be
let down at will to form small rooms or closets. A fascina-
ting house for tricks, deceptions, and concealments — a veri-
table "magic cabinet, " a tempting toy for grown-up children.
The Prince regales us with cups of tepid rice-tea and
glasses of warm beer. Strangely enough, tea is scarcely
known to the people of Korea in spite of the fact that their

IN A HOUSE OP PAP«

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

nearest neighbors, Japan and China, are the great tea-grow-
ing countries of the world. We entertain His Highness with
our portable machine for showing miniature motion-pictures,
the like of which he has never seen before. He grows
enthusiastic and begs us to allow him to take the instrument
to the Palace to show it to the Emperor. We gladly
acquiesce, and after teaching him how to operate the instru-
ment, we resume our tramp through the suburban villages
and along the country roads all submerged in sunshine.

A KOREAN

Those who have traveled widely in Korea tell us that
there is little variety in the landscape or the villages ; that
these suburban settlements near Seoul are prototypes of all
that we should see in the course of a long journey, but all
agree that the Buddhist monasteries in the remote mountain-
regions are well worthy of a pilgrimage. That this must be
true we are convinced as we pause before the ghostly outline

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

of the " Whito Buddha," the most curious sight In the
environs of the capital. A priest from the neighboring
monastery is presenting offerings at the instance of the boy
who has come as messenger from some one who desired
prayers and sent the cash to pa)- the priest for saying them.
But Buddhism is under a ban in Korea. For three hun-
dred years previous to 1894 "O Buddhist priest was permitted

A SUBUKIAN VII I \.,l

to enter a walled city. Therefore to-day the cities are dig-
nified by no temples and can boast no religious buildings save
the unsightly foreign churches reared by zealous but inar-
tistic missionaries. The exclusion of the priests was due
indirectly to the cunning of the Japanese, who during the
invasion of 1 592 disguised their soldiers in the garb of Bud-
dhist priests and thus took many towns by strategy. There-
fore, to guard against a recurrence of this sort of thing.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

w ' '.

p^^^

ik^^^.k>_»^Mi^^^ ^ '

iki'JF v**^-

^.#^..-

'ial^

^ *^

A IIUDDHIST MONASTERY

priests were declared tabu, and remained outcasts until the
Japanese appeared again as conquerors, in 1894, demanding
among other changes and reforms the repeal of the act ex-
cluding the holy men from the walled cities. Their faith, how-
ever, is still shut out of the hearts of all save a small minority.

A MORTUARY GATE

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA 91

THE TOMB OF THB QUEEN

But, broadly speaking, Korea has no religion. Buddhism
is looked down upon by the better class ; Christianity is
tolerated and marveled at — a good beginning, but only a
beginning ; and Confucianism has lost its hold since the
Japanese abolished the time-honored literary examinations

STONE QUADRi;PEDS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OP' KOREA

based on the writings of Confucius and the Chinese classics.
But if Korea has no faith in gods and priests, she is bound
soul and mind by the fear of demons and is slavishly sub-
missive to the dictates and exactions of the sorceresses,
called mutangs, who claim to have the power of casting

Photograph by J. H. Morris

AN IMPERIAL PROCESSION

out or foiling the innumerable demons who hover in clouds
above every city, inhabit every tree and bush, or abide
amid the rafters of every house. Even after death they
exert malicious influences, and in the location of tombs, —
usually placed on hillsides, and if possible in the rare
remaining groves — due regard must be paid to the wishes
of the dominant demons of the region. The strength of
the Korean race has been sapped by superstition. The

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

GUARDIAN WARRIORS

Emperor himself is the most conspicuous victim of super-
stition. The nation has paid exorbitant tribute to the art of
geomancy, because of the Imperial belief in the potency
of the predictions and deductions of the "Earth Doctors."

.,«. _>n^i 11

ib^^

«>

■

-■^ - J ■*^--

^ '■ .

'^^^^H

THE AMERICAN-BUILT HIGHWAY

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

The successive interments of the murdered Queen throw
into relief the contradictory influences of superstition and
science that prevail by turns at court. The first tomb near
the city was built at a tremendous cost ; the little finger of
the Queen — all that remained of the poor lady — was trans-
lated with great pomp to the sacred enclosure and buried
with due ceremony in the conventional mound, above which
an unconventional roof of modern corrugated-iron was erected

THE TOP OF THE PASS

as a shelter. Seventy thousand dollars were expended in
works and ceremonies, but in vain. The sorcerers declared
that the spirit of the murdered queen could not rest peacefully
unless her finger be again interred in another and more propi-
tious spot. In vain the temples, prayer-houses, and the tra-
ditional images of animals ranged round the mound facing the
outer wall, to detect and intercept approaching demons of
unrest. In vain also the traditional figures of warriors and
watchmen standing guard before the tomb ready to slay the

STUDYING THE CLASSICS

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

rilii OLD ROAD

peace-disturbing spirits. In vain the incantations of the
mutanj^s and the gcomancers. The site was unpropitious ; the
ghost of the poor queen could never find repose until the finger
be retranslated to a more favorable and happier-chosen spot.
The Emperor, therefore, commanded the wise Earth Doctors

ASKINt: THK WAY

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

to find that spot. For many months the geomancers studied
sites and situations. They finally agreed upon a place that
seemed to fulfil all essential conditions, and work was begun
at once. But injudicious laborers struck a huge mass of buried
rock, — eloquent evidence that the Imperial conjurors had
made a grave mistake, for a queen 's spirit could never rest

THE NEW TOMB

upon a rocky bed. One wise man suffered death for his
acknowledged lack of skill ; his confreres tremblingly renewed
the search for the propitious spot.

Let us now follow their example and set out in search of
the new site for the tomb of her Korean Majesty. One of
the most amazing things in all Korea is a highway leading
out from Seoul to the new tomb, some seventeen miles dis-
tant,— a unique and splendid highway, in a practically road-
less land. Why was it made.' the stranger will inquire.
Because the queen's remains must be escorted to the new
tomb by a great procession forty feet wide, and this road,
seventeen miles long, was made merely for the prospective
passage of that procession which should have occurred in

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

1 90 1, but which has been repeatedly put off. Korean cus-
tom and superstition play into the hands of American ability
and enterprise, for the contract for the making of this road
fell naturally to the American syndicate which is building the
new water-works and operating the electric line. The con-
tract called for a forty-foot road ; the company has made it

Photouraph by J. H. Mofrl*

A PROCESSION TO THE ANCESTRAL TOMBS

fifty feet in width, and will run trolley-cars along the extra
ten-foot strip to carry picnic parties to the new necropolis.
But no provision has been made for the maintenance of this
funeral highway ; it will in time become as vague and difficult
to traverse as the old native road by which we traveled in
attempting to make a short cut and save distance. Near the
site selected as the final resting-place for the uncanny little

loo SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

AN ARCHERY RANGE

finger of the assassinated queen, we find a thousand workmen
engaged in the construction of the various buildings and the
landscape work necessary to fit the place for its high and
most sacred purpose. A town has sprung into being in the
wilderness as a result of the extensive labors undertaken
here. Even to our ignorant eyes, untrained in the mysteries
of geomancy, the site appears decidedly propitious — a soft

GENTLEMEN AT ARCHERY PRACTICE

SEOUL. THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

lOI

and comfortable hill as base ; a formidable mountain-range
as background and protection ; pine-groves to furnish nuisic
when the winds shall blow, and spacious level areas across
which evil spirits cannot pass without detection. Let us
hope that the Queen's spirit will at last find rest before the
Imperial Exchequer be exhausted through another error of the
sorcerers, to whose feigned wisdom the Emperor bows in super-
stitious fear, heeding religiously their prophecies and warnings.

Hy periitlssioii

-HIS HIGHNESS, VE CHAT SOON

WHO COMMlTTF.n SUICIDE BY TAKING OPlfJI AT THE COUHAND OF THE
EMPEROR WHOM HE HAP OFFENDED

I02

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

When will men wake and banish from the earth the
countless frauds fostered by cowardly custom and tradition ?
• — in our own land as well as in Korea? Would that the
contemplation of the foolishness of others could teach us to
despise our own pet superstitions! We laugh at the credulity
of these unenlightened people, and yet we dare not sit
thirteen at table ; we hesitate to begin anything on Friday ;

By permission ^ GESANG AND ATTENDANTS

we tremble if the new moon looks at us over the left
shoulder, — to say nothing of other paralyzing superstitions to
which so many of us have sacrificed our reason.

Three of the spacious royal demeures of the Korean
Emperor in Seoul have been abandoned for reasons based on
morbid sentmient or superstition. One palace park, however,

IN MUUKNING UKESS

IN STREET COSTUME

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

105

has been a public playground for a generation. There
the new army is occasionally drilled, and thither gentlemen of
Seoul resort for athletic sports and pleasures, of which the
chief is archery. The Archery Range is excellent ; a temple-
terrace for the archers, the target on a terraced hillside,
beyond a broad green-clad depression where passers-by may
walk in safety beneath the high curvings of the feathered
shafts, for the Korean gentlemen aim high, as if intent on
hitting unseen stars. And they are accurate of aim ; for
nearly every arrow as it descends from the cleft skies strikes
the mark or, at the worst, falls very near it. We spend an
interesting hour watching the gentlemen of Seoul contending
in friendly rivalry in this dignified and medieval e.xercise.

riiolograph 1>) J. H. Morris

THB BX-EMPEROR WITH TWO OK HIS SONS, THE ELDEST AND THE YOUNGEST

io6

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

Dignity is a Korean characteristic, which, however, in the case
of the great personages, will be modified by the inevitable
adoption of the unpleasing costume of civilization. The grand
air is not consistent with the coats and trousers of to-day.
As for the new palace, where the Emperor now lives,
venturing out only once or twice a year, we gained admission
to its precincts through the influence of our little motion-
picture machine. As I have already told you, it was taken
to be shown to the Emperor by the "Fat Prince," Ye Chai
Soon. It was retained two days at the palace and sent back
in the dead of night by Imperial messengers, who came with
torches and lanterns through the streets, roused the hotel,
and delivered the magic-box accompanied by several presents
from his Majesty, including twenty yards of rich green silk
and half a dozen fans, together with an explanation of the
delay, due to the fact that the baby prince, youngest son of
the Emperor and actual palace tyrant, had been fascinated by
the toy and had wept when they attempted to take it from
him, falling asleep still gripping it firmly in his chubby hands.

^^^L^^>,

l^^^^^^l

^^^^^bjiId I

fpRsA 1 1 n iu« au 1 fit^l^ :

9^^1

_-r ■*' M ..:

THE FRENCH HOTEL .

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

107

THI-: GAIK OK THl-: NHW PA[.ACE

Next day there
came an invita-
tion from the Fat
Prince to appear
at the palace to
see the Imperial
dancing girls ; but
a postscript begs
us to be sure to
bring the picture-
machine. Mr.
Pak remarks in a
warning tone : "If
you take machine
one time more
palace think you
lose him." We
went, prepared to
part with the cov-
eted box, gladly

io8

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

presenting it to the little Prince to stop his weeping, receiving
in return twenty yards more of rich green silk, two kakemonos,
and other gifts of silver, and, what we prized most of all, a
peep at a portion of the Imperial corps-de-ballet. The danc-
ing-girls of Korea, called '' g-esang;" occupy about the same
place as the geishas of Japan, save that most of them are
employed chiefly in the palace, there being an established

PANORAMA FROM

troupe of over eighty coryphees, constantly in readiness to
dance before the Emperor. They ride about the town in
elegant sedans, attended always by a woman servant. They
are sometimes pretty, in a mild and featureless sort of way,
but always immaculately dressed, with faces powdered and
made up until they look like placid masks. As for their art,
its charm is not apparent to the stranger ; monotonous, stiff.

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

109

and automatic in their posturing, and quite expressionless of
visage, they dance to the dull music thumped on a double-
drum. And this sort of thing is regarded as the height of
gaiety at the Korean court. The Emperor spends hours
every day in watching the gyrations of his fourscore automa-
tons. We are happy to have seen it, for so much mystery

THK CATHOLIC CATHKDKAI,

surrounded the celebrated Palace Gesang that we should have
been as bitterly disappointed in another sense had not our
magic pictures gained us entrance to the palace courts. But
even the magic pictures that have bewitched the Imperial
circle from the Emperor to the Baby Prince, do not awaken
the slightest spark of interest in the impassive coryphees,
who look into the instrument with uncomprehending eyes.

IIO

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

The dancing troupe having been suddenly summoned to the
Imperial presence, we took our departure from the palace,
stopping to refresh ourselves at the new French Hotel re-
cently opened just across the street. Curious indeed this

WANDERING CITV-WALLS

mingling of the Oriental and the Occidental in this old city,
so long secluded from the outer world. But brought at last
in touch with what the modern world calls progress, the
speedy transformation of old Seoul is now inevitable. The
soldiers who stand guard beneath the palace portal are uni-
formed in boats and trousers, and wear European caps above
their horsehair fillets and their native topknots, The army
has already been transformed half-a-dozen times, for it has
been the toy of foreign drill-masters of every nation that has
held successively the favor of the king. America, Japan, and
Russia have had the longest innings. To-day, Korean officers
are in command, but the men exhibit the good points drilled
into them by their old instructors of various rival nations.
Four elements are now at work in this most interesting
city, shaping the future of the Hermit Kingdom. One is

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA III

American enteiprine, exemplified by the activity of the syn-
dicate to which Seoul owes electric cars, electric lights, and
a modern system of water supply. Another, the missionaries,
striving to wipe from the Korean mind the cobweb of demon-
ology, which, with the network spread by prejudice and
custom, fortns the only barrier to the introduction of a real'
religion. A third is the commercial and semi-political aggres-
sion of the Japanese, who people the seaports, control the
shipping trade, and have planted a colony of five thousand

THE SEA-PATH TO JAPAN

Japanese in Seoul itself. Japanese statesmen know that they
must have Korea to receive and feed the ever-increasing
population of Dai Nippon, for Korea is but sparsely inhabited ;
it has only twelve million people at the most aud, properly

112 SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA

cultivated, it could support as many more. The fourth ele-
ment is the silent ' ' waiting policy ' ' of Russia. Russian states-
men have for years coveted the long, conveniently-situated
peninsula of Korea to round out the Asiatic Empire of the
Muscovite, to give it a frontage on the Oceanic highways of
the Orient. Besides these elements, there is, last and appar-
ently least and weakest : the Korean court, shut up within
the walls of a restricted palace-park. Open to arguments
of progress, it is eager for American advice, and yet at the
same time, a prey to superstition ; fearful of Japanese aggres-
sion, already suffered thrice, it remains uncertain as to the
designs of Russia. The Emperor himself seems bound hand
and foot by the cruel shackles of custom and tradition.

Which will prevail .'' America with her electricity, the
church with her religious teachings, Japan with her bayonets
and merchandise, Russia with her diplomacy and patience,
or the Emperor of Ta-han with his eighty calm-faced gesang
and his innumerable sorcerers .''

In 1910 Korea's fate was settled. By a treaty with Japan,
Korea ceased to be a separate nation, the Emperor was deprived
of his title and all political power, and Korea became an integral
part of Japan. Whether the future will bring more changes
cannot be foretold.

THE TEA HOUSE OF THE EIGHT
HUNDRED PINE TREES

Near Tokyo, on the banks of the Sumida
River, stood qn:^9^f74^h&llRq8t^(|Q\ig^J1^f}^lytea
houses in all Japan — the Yao-Matsu, or the
Tea House of the Eight Hundred Pine Trees.
Here formerly one could find the peace and
charm of the country — today Tokyo is
expanding and has already flung its factories
and warehouses around about the garden
of the Yao JNlatsu, which in spite of all
retains much of its old-time fascination.

•'V • > "• »'

edi •;

ex oYio!
esho joisi r ■

, .(ToftRfft-i,

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

The Covrvtrj;

^HE HISTORY of the remote ages of Japan
is made up of fact and fable so strangely
mingled that it is now almost impossible to distinguish
authentic record from mere tradition.

But though we may not read with conviction the early
annals of this land, yet it may be well before visiting their
shores to know something of what the Japanese believe in

ii6

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

regard to the origin of their islands and of their race. Let lis
therefore turn to their most ancient record, their book of
Genesis, called the "Kojiki. " In this venerable collection of
myths and legends we read that in the beginning all things
were in chaos, and heaven and earth were not yet separated.
But that, during those long ages while the world floated in a
cosmic mass, there existed innumerable generations of gods
from whom descended the two personages who play a most
important part in Japanese Mythology. They are Izanagi
and Izanami, the divine Adam and Eve of Japan.

This heavenly pair having stepped out on the floating
Bridge of Heaven, the male plunged his jeweled spear into
the unstable waters beneath them ; and as he withdrew it,

THE SACKl^D i'VKAMln

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

117

PhiitO|;raiih by U. M. I'oole

FROM THK BRIDGE OF HEAVEN

the trickling drops formed an archipelago of fair and lovely
islands ; and these islands are called Dai Nippon, or Great
Japan. Then, says the chronicle, the creative pair descended
to one of the islands and began a journey around it, going
each in an opposite direction. At their meeting, half-way,
the female spirit, pleased at the sight of Izanagi, cried, " How
joyful to meet a lovely man!" But he, offended that the
first words spoken on earth should have been pronounced by
a woman, required the circuit to be repeated ; and at the
second meeting it was the man who spoke first, saying,
"How joyful to meet a lovely woman!" And in this e.x-
change of compliments was the beginning of the art of love.
Their first child was called Ama-terasu-o-mi-kami, or the
"Heaven Illuminating Goddess "; for she shone beautifully,
and lighted the Heavens and Earth. To her were given the
skies for her kingdom, and to this day the Sun Goddess sits
on high and smiles on fair Japan.

ii8

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

But this bright deity desired an earthly empire for her
grandson, named Ninigi, and so, relates another chronicle,
she caused him " to thrust from him Heaven's eternal throne,
to fling open Heaven's eternal doors, to cleave with might
his way from out Heaven 's many piled clouds, and then to
descend from Heaven ' ' ; and after his descent, the floating
bridge dissolved, the Heaven and the Earth became still farther
separated, and communication between them forever ceased.
Ninigi, though received with great honor by the people of
the earth, was not destined to become himself their ruler. It

remained for his
great grandson
Jimmu Tenno to
found, by con-
quest, that long-
lived dynasty of
which a repre-
sentative sits on
the throne to-
day, boasting for
his line twenty-
five centuries of
unbroken succes-
sion. This Jim-
mu Tenno lived
and fought more
than six hundred
years before the
birth of Christ.
Thus it is no new
land we are about
to visit, nor is it
a barbaric one ;
ok.khnMP, for though the

Photograph by O. M. Poole O

THE PATH OF THK SUN GODDESS

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

119

civilization of the Japanese differs widely from our own, it is
a civilization, ancient, admirable, and artistic, fitting the
needs of this people far better than the manners and customs
of our newer, cruder Occident, which they are now — alas!
— so hastily and in many respects ill-advisedly adopting.

^*a^?

MORNING

To the casual visitor the Japan of to-day seems a land of
railways, telephones, and modern commerce in tea and silk ;
and this is to a certain extent true, especially if he confines
himself to Yokohama, Kob^, and the other open treaty ports.
Even Tokyo, the capital, is already touched by the marring
hand of foreign innovation, for there the traveler finds tram-
cars and ugly public buildings in red brick, designed accord-
ing to the Japanese idea of European architecture — an idea
which will cause future generations to blush for the bad taste
of their respected ancestors ; for strange as it may appear,
the innate good taste of the Japanese, who are artistic in so
true a sense when dealing with things Japanese, utterly for-
sakes them when they attempt anything unfamiliar, be it

I20

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

architecture, dress, or merely the painting of a sign-board or
the printing of a circular in English to catch the foreign eye.
It is not to this modern Japan that I invite you, though
we may see something of it en passant, but it is into the
Real Japan that I ask you to accompany me, to look on what
remains of the ancient order of things, now so fast disappear-
ing. It seems almost incredible that only forty years ago*
Japan was as ignorant of our arts and sciences as were we of
the interiors of her mysterious and inhospitable islands ; but

THE WATERS AND THE LAND

it is nevertheless true that the Japan found in 1853 by Com-
modore Perry, was the same, unaltering, feudal empire that
it had been for centuries — its gates closed to the outer
world, its manners and government unchanged for genera-
tions, its Mikados — heritors of the throne of Jimmu Tenno
become mere puppets, honored as "Sons of Heaven, "but
kept in sacred seclusion by the Shoguns, or Great Generals,
who were virtually monarchs of the land and leaders of that
mighty system of military feudalism which, founded during

> Note. — Mr. Holmes' first visit to Japan was in 1892-93, on the eve of his nrst professional appearance.

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

123

the twelfth century, endured almost to the present day, to
fall at last amid battle and revolution in 1868.

Once overturned, the feudal structure disappeared ; and
in its place rose the constitutional monarchy of to-day, with

THE EMPRESS OF JAPAN

Mutsu Hito, the Mikado, on his rightful throne, with a par-
liament, a standing army, a well-equipped navy, and a thou-
sand other adjuncts of a modern nation.

Not long ago Japan lay in the
farthest East, reached only after
months of tedious travel ; now,
thanks to modern enterprise, she
is our nearest neighbor on the
west, and is to-day as acces-
sible to the globe-trotter as
Spain or Italy, while her
originality and quaint charm
attract him more strongly
than the courts of the Al-
hambra or the ruins of the
Roman Forum.

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

IN YOKOHAMA HARIOR

124

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

Turning our backs, then, on the familiar fields of travel,
we make our way westward along the line of the Canadian
Pacific to Vancouver, whence a voyage of thirteen days
brings us to Yokohama. In one of the splendid Canadian
Pacific's steamers, the "Empress of Japan," we cross a
desolate expanse of northern ocean, and after the first day

A CAB-STAND

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

125

out we do not see a single sail until we come upon the queer-
rigged fishing-junks, a few miles off the foggy and tempestuous
coast of Japan's largest island, called Hondo, or Main Island.

A small typhoon chases us into the Bay of Tokyo, and it
is in a howling gale that we reach the anchorage off Yoko-
hama. Great waves are running in the harbor, thick mists
almost obscure the city, while around our ship are tossing in
mad confusion hundreds of ' ' sampans, ' ' manned by brown-
skinned boatmen who, clothed chiefly by the spray from
breaking waves, ply their rude oars, and anxiously scan the
decks, looking for travelers who may wish to go ashore.

It is with the sensations of a rat recently rescued from
drowning that I land at the '' hatoba," and, dripping my
way through the Custom House, make a most abject and
undignified entry into the Land of the Rising Sun. But no
discomforts can completely annul the pleasure of arriving in
a new and unknown land ; and even this ugly and unpictur-
esque hatoba, where passengers are landed by small boats,
has for me a special charm, because it is the doorway of
Japan. Follow me through the commonplace custom-house,
where officials uniformed in coats and trousers make cabal-
istic signs in chalk upon our wet belongings, and then, leav-
ing these disappointingly mod-
ern Japanese, we come
out into a spacious
square ; the scene is

i-j6

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

decidedly un- Japanese ; no flying storks,
no purple sky, no gorgeous warriors
in Oriental armor guarding this
front door of Japan, — no little
maids in flowery robes anaking
obeisance.

On one side rise walls of
red brick, on the other stands
a lamp-post of the most or-
dinary aspect. Nothing to
suggest Japan until we call
for cabs. Ah ! then we dis-
cover that we are in a land of
novelty, for there before us is a
cab-stand unlike any we have ever
seen. The horses and drivers are

LOUIS EPPINGKR

combined in one be
ing, and a crowd of

THK GRAND HOTEL

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

127

these smiling centaurs sur-
round us and clamorously but
politely demand the honor of
our patronage. Not to ap-
pear too new in the country, I
disguise my delight, and care-
lessly nod to one of the little
fellows who runs back to his
baby-cart, steps between the
shafts, and dashes up to where
I stand. With a sensation of
supreme bliss, I mount this
rolling rocking-chair and in
. purest Japanese I say, ' ' Grand
Hotel." To my amazement
my composite steed and coach-
man seem to understand, and
off we go along the Bund, a
smooth, hard road along the
water-front. As I am whirled
past banks and steamship-of-
fices and consulates and clubs,
I do my best to look at home
and to create the impression
that I was cradled in a " jin-
rikisha," for that is what my
vehicle is called by foreigners ;
but the Japanese say ^' kuru-
tna," and call the little man
who furnishes the motive-pow-
er a " kunimaya. ' ' Call it as
you please, kuruma or jinriki-
sha, your first ride in it is one
of the things in life never to

MANAGER LOt'IS EPPINCBR RKCEIVINC Gl^BSTS
AT THK GRAND HOTEL

128

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

be forgotten. You feel like an overgrown baby being
wheeled about by a male nurse who has lost his senses and
broken into a run, as if pursued by unseen demons.

Reaching the Grand Hotel, I strive to dismount and pay
my fare with the air of an old and experienced Eastern
traveler, but the smile on my coolie's face denounces me to
the guests who are partaking of cooling beverages at little
tables on the veranda ; for I have given him twenty sen, four
times the lawful fare, the rate for these conveyances being in
our money ten cents an hour — fifty cents for the entire day.

I'hotograpli hy Tainaniura

ON THE VERANDA

The Grand Hotel, managed by the genial Louis Eppinger,
is regarded as the best in all the Orient. Owned by a stock-
company it is run on the American plan, at prices high for
Japan, but to newcomers delightfully reasonable.

Our windovv's look out upon the harbor of Yokohama, the
most important open port of the Mikado's Empire, and
though the scene before us is in appearance a quiet one, an
enormous amount of shipping is borne by these blue waters.
Nearly every day an ocean steamer reaches Yokohama from
some one of the great seaports of the world. Men-of-war of
England, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

129

are constantly at anchor here, while the count-
less fishing-junks of the Japanese are con-
tinually passing, sometimes casting their
nets within a stone's throw of our
windows. These fishermen are, as a
rule, given to scandalous economy
in the matter of dress, but we soon
come to take no thought as to what
the natives wear or do not wear ;
their brown skins seem to suffice for
clothing — which fits them very well.

My first care was to find a native
"boy," for in Japan it is unheard of to
wait upon yourself. I did not want a guide,
for guides are tyrants ; and knowing what I wished to see
and how to see it, I needed only a servant to relieve me of
the thousand little worries of the traveler. Tsuni Horiuchi
is the name of the " boy " from whom I first learned how
superior one feels when served by an accomplished valet.
I call him ' ' boy, ' ' for that is the term in use ; but he has seen
forty summers and is the father of a large and growing family.
He could do many things — pack trunks, sew on buttons,

Nl HORIUCni
MV "BOV"

and speak English, though in this latter accomplishment he
was less than proficient, for, always speaking in the future
tense, he sometimes puzzled me whep trying to relate thai
which had happened yesterday.

I30

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

Every one who reaches Yokohama is sure to have heard
of the Tea House of the Hundred Steps, and probably has
been advised to make an early visit at that historic place of
refreshment. Obedient to the demands of custom, we make
these steps the object of our first excursion outside the walls
of. Eppinger's Hotel. We have not far to go, for the Hun-
dred Steps rise from a quarter of the native town, just across
a canal which flows between the hotel and the bluff. Right
here we had better forget the existence of elevators and resign
ourselves to many a long climb up steep and slippery granite

THE HUNDRED STEPS
Photograph by Otis A. Poole

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

i3»

Photograph t>y Otis A. Poole

YOKOHAMA PROM THE BLUFF

Stairways, for in Japan most things worth seeing, — temples,
tea-houses, views, and cemeteries are high in the air and
accessible only by means of those everlasting and exhausting
granite steps. True, a graded road winds up another part
of the Bluff, and it is by it that the foreign merchants, after
the day's business is over, reach their residences on the
heights ; but while our enthusiasm lasts, we climb the steps,
naturally counting them to verify the
justness of their title. We find that
there are one hundred, and one
more ; and on this last and top-
most step we stop to catch
our breath and to look
back upon the Foreign
Settlement of Yokoha-
ma. It is clean, well-
kept, and not
unpicturesque,

PhotogTAtth by Otis A. Poole

ON THB BLUFF ROAD

132

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

though by no means of an Oriental aspect. The banks, stores,
and warehouses are controlled by foreigners, of whom there
are about two thousand, including a majority of Englishmen,
some hundreds of Americans, and a few representatives of
other nations. The foreign houses deal in almost everything
that can be bought or sold. I ordered several suits of clothes
at a grocery-store, purchased a guide-book at a photog-
rapher's, and rented a bicycle at a jewelry-shop.

But here we are at the ' ' Fiijita Chaya, ' ' as this tea-house
is called. We are greeted by the smiling hostess who has

THE WAY TO NIKKO

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

135

't-"

done the honors ever since she was a little mousm^, we won't
say how long ago, — though it would not offend her, for the
women of Japan are prouder of their years as these increase
in number. Seated on the bench of honor, we drink from
tiny cups the pale yellow tea of Japan, sugarless and milkless,
and eat the most peculiar little cakes, of all the colors of the
spectrum. Meanwhile the " ncsan," as the waiting-maids
are called, stand by and smile as we drag out from phrase-
books all the complimentary speeches they contain. They
understand all kinds of Japanese here, and the struggling

Photognph by Tamamun

THR BRIDGBS AT NIKKO

136

JAPAN—THE COUNTRY

beginner feels that he is getting on magniiicently, so well do
these little people pretend to seize his meaning.

But I have promised to lead you into the Japan of other
days, and nowhere is the splendor and dignity of Old Japan
more eloquently manifest than at Nikko, where about a hun-
dred miles to the noith in a forest of great beauty are found the
most exquisite and sumptuous temples of Japan. We have but
to breathe the one word ' ' Nikko ' ' to bring before us a hundred
pictures of surpassing dignity and beauty. A stately avenue
indeed is that along which memory conducts us toward the
Tokugawa shrines. But mysterious and beautiful as is this
forest aisle, it leads to that which is still more mysterious and
still more beautiful. A road like this is not created in a day.
Three centuries and more have passed since its curving
course, of twenty magnificent miles, was traced and fixed by
two long lines of saplings, now become two regiments of
venerable trees, guarding the approach to the necropolis

Photograph by Kimbel

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

i37

of the great soldiers lyeyasu and lyemitsu, once masters of
Japan. Their names are strange to foreign ears, but as
familiar to the Japanese as are to us the names of Caesar and
Napoleon. These ancient warriors are now become not only

riiotonraph by Kinibel. THE UNCOUNTABLE BUDDHAS

saints, but gods, and the necropolis toward which we are
advancing along this splendid corridor is the abode of their
immortal souls — a place of pilgrimage — the Mecca of
Japan. We should see gorgeous spectacles could we but
conjure up the wonderful pageants of other days which have
passed along this avenue — those stately pilgrimages of old
princes who came, in years gone by, to pay their annual
homage at the shrines, to pray to the great spirits of the
departed Shoguns. To-day a railway carries tourists to the
temples ; but we prefer to imitate the slow, deliberate
approach of old-time pilgrims that we may reach the sacred

138

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

bridge of Nikko with mind and eye at rest and ready to
receive and hold impressions with which the image of a rail-
way train can never be in harmony. Two bridges span the
river that skirts the base of Nikko 's holy hill — one for all
the world, one for the priesthood and the Emperor. The
graceful arch of red and gold, with its posts and rails of
lacquer and its ornaments of chiseled brass, is the one

Photograph by Kimbei ,^ ^^^y. ^ikko FOREST

reserved for priestly and imperial feet. Not far from the
bridges there sits alined like an everlasting jury, an assem-
blage of unnumbered granite Buddhas, all of venerable aspect,
who watch the stream as it rushes on, with looks of super-
natural contempt for all things that pertain to this poor world.
"Unnumbered" they are, indeed, for tradition says that no
man can ever count them twice with the same result, nor can
two people ever make their totals to agree. Custom demands

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY 139

that I should try, and try I do — and fail, for though a total
of one hundred and sixteen was easily reached on the first
count, I could not in two later trials arrive within three units
of the first result. As if to give an air of truth to the belief
that members of this grim and silent community are forever
arriving and departing, one figure weighing tons was torn
from its pedestal by a sudden flooding of the river, and carried
down the rushing stream five miles to Imaichi ; and there he
was fished out in good condition and sits to-day on the out-
skirts of that village, his face turned Nikkoward.

The river crossed, we mount broad stone stairways and
enter the consecrated forest in which the temples are con-
cealed. We pass onward by imposing avenues, shut in by
mighty trees. Between these living pillars we discern sec-
tions of lacquered walls, e.xtremities of high curving gables,
and tops of tall pagodas. Other avenues lead off in all direc-
tions, tempting us to follow and explore the distant regions of
the sacred wood. Sometimes the far end of the aisle is lost
in the dimness of the forest depths ; sometimes the solemn
shaded path leads to a place of brightness where a shaft of
sunshine falls through an opening in the leafy roof and,
touching the lacquered structures, makes walls and gables
glow with living color, and wakes the fire in the rosettes and
ornaments of polished bronze. And, standing out against
the brilliancy of these sunny
courts, we see almost invari-
ably the same strange sil-
houette — two upright columns
slightly inclining toward one an-
other as they rise, and two cross-
beams, one straight, the other
curved so gracefully that the
eye always rests with pleas-
ure on the line traced by its

140

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

skyward face. These arches are called Torii ; they form an
incident in almost every picture, almost every landscape in
Japan, for they are reared before all sacred places, and in
Japan we find a sacred place at every turn. The Torii is of
Shinto origin, and its presence here at the approach to tem-
ples built by Buddhists reminds us that the old Shinto faith,
the Japanese religion, once almost crowded from the islands by

Photograph by Kimbel

THE NIOMON

the spread of the imported Buddhist cult, has been revived
since the restoration. Shinto priests replace the Buddhist
monks in many Buddhist temples, and the so-called reforma-
tion by the Shinto party has wrought much havoc with things
artistic, as religious reformations always do. Many beautiful
and precious objects pertaining to the elaborate Buddhist
ritual have been destroyed or cast out from the gorgeous

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

141

THE WIND DEVIL
Photograph by Kimbel

temples by the champions of
Shintoism, who affect sim-
plicity in worship. They have
even gone so far in other places
as to level graceful pagodas or
other structures which recalled
too vividly the teachings of the
popular religion. At Nikko
many gods have been evicted
or forced to make a change of
residence. Two of them, cast
out from the gate of lyeyasu's
temple, have found refuge
beneath the entrance gate to
the shrine of lyemitsu, a
grandson and successor
of the older prince.
Apparently these gods
have not forgotten their

expulsion, for they still main
tain an attitude of vigor-
ous protest. Strong
must have been the
faith of those who
dared to meddle
with these furious
deities. The
crimson gods,
called the guard-
ians of the outer
gate, were sta-
tioned there to scare
away all demons and

Photograph by Eaaml

OHB OF THE GUARDIANS IN THE GATS

142

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

all evil spirits from the sa-
cred resting-places of the dead.
We find them sometimes
spattered, from their
sour faces to their
giant feet, with little
whitish pellets, peti-
tions written on tissue
paper, chewed to a

THE THUNDER DEVIL

Photograph by Kimbei

A CITIZEN
OF NIKKO

pulp, and fired at these figures by the
credulous. Unless the pulpy ball adheres
to some part of the body, the suppliant
cannot expect an answer to his prayer.
Retreating before the menace of the
unlovely deities, we begin the ascent to
the mausoleum of Japan's greatest gen-
eral and ruler. It comprises more than
twenty buildings, each of inestimable
richness. They are arranged
in orderly disorder in a for-
est on a mountain-slope.
Broad, shady terraces rise

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

«45

one above another, and upon each terrace are grouped strange
structures in bronze and lacquer, — gateways, temples, or
pagodas. Broad flights of stone steps lead up from court to
court, from an assemblage of marvelous structures to struc-
tures that are still more marvelous. The first ascent is a
bewildering experience ; we must come again an'1 JM^win

AMONG THE TEMPLES

before we can obtain a clear idea of the arrangement, the num-
ber, or the meaning of these forest-hidden creations of aa art
and architecture utterly unrelated to our own. On the next
terrace we pause in questioning silence at sight of a graceful
architectural conundrum. How meaningless to western eyes
that huge piece of bric-i-brac ! — a tower that is not a

146

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

tower, a temple that is not a temple, merely a thing of
strange beauty, carved and lacquered and polished, a thing
to excite wonder. Yet to the Buddhist pilgrim there is no
mystery. He knows that this structure houses a sacred
drum, or a huge bell, — that the voices of the temple dwell
within it. Contrasting strangely with this brilliant gem are
the old candelabra and lanterns of dull bronze grouped about
its base. These things are the offerings of tributary nations,
the Chinese and the Dutch, who in the sixteenth century

Photo^aph by Kiznbc-i

STONK I.ANTKRNS

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

147

feigned submission to the feudal rulers of the land for the
sake of tht valuable privilege of trading with Japan at a time
when it was closed to foreigners of other nationalities. For
many years Nikko was the repository of the artistic riches of
Japan ; every feudal lord owing allegiance to the Tokugawa
clan sent annual offerings to the shrine of lyeyasu. Great

rhotiit.'raph 1>\ K

nobles reared huge torii of stone or bronze ; daimyos of less
degree erected the tall " loro " or lanterns likewise of stone
or bronze which stand in silent ranks like a guard of honor.
Before we pass up to another level we ask the meaning
and the uses of the two curious buildings close at hand. One
shelters with its wondrous roof a hollowed monolith, a

148

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

WOOD CARVIN<;S BY
AN OLD MASTER

granite basin into which cool water from the mountain
springs is ever ilowing. There pilgrims wash their hands
before approaching the more sacred shrines. They do not
plunge their hands into the water; instead, with dainty
wooden ladles they dip it up and pour the water first upon
one hand, then upon the other. Then, with clean hands,
they enter the larger building, just beyond. Within stands a

big lacquer cabinet, octagonal in
resting upon a pivot.
It contains the Buddhist
scriptures, 6771 vol-
umes. Those who
have not time to
read them through,
— a duty that de-
volves on every
pious follower of
the faith, — may
expedite their
salvation by put-
ting their shoulders
to the revolving cab-
inet and causing it to
describe four complete
revolutions. This arduous
literary labor ended, we climb
By permission — two tlcrs of mossy stcps which lead

to the " Tomcimon," — the Gate of Beauty,- — a magical
creation indescribably ornate.

Beneath the spreading eaves of the tiled roof, hundreds of
furious beasts have found a refuge, — an angry army of
dragons, lions, dog-like creatures, a sculptured nightmare ;
and every weird chimera seems ready to leap upon us, with
teeth and claws to bite and scratch, but they remain fixed in

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

149

motionless fury glaring down with bloodshot eyes on all who
dare to enter. Running the gantlet of these hostile grim-
aces, we enter the upper court and, looking back, behold a
similar assemblage of monsters upon the inner side of the
Yomeimon. They seem to say, "You have passed once
unharmed, but you shall not return without feeling the sharp-

riiutit^r^l^lk by Tatiiaiiiura

INNHR SlUK OK THK YOMKIMON

ness of our claws, the poison of our fangs! " Yet the gro-
tesque and beautiful are side by side. Upon the panels of
the gate there seem to bloom afresh gorgeous chrysanthe-
mums, and the tracery upon the pillars is refined and
delicate. They were indeed bold artists, those patient
workers who three hundred years ago conceived these things,
and wrought here in the forest these miracles of architecture.

ISO

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

Just as the Christian faith was the in-
spiration of creative minds in me
dieval Europe, so Buddhism
was the inspiration of the
old-time artists and build-
ers of Japan. The im-
ages which they carved
and the structures which
they reared bear wit-
ness to the depth and
the conviction of their
faith. They worked
as if the eyes of the
very gods were follow-
ing every stroke of the
chisel, every touch of the
brush, the fitting of every

joint. The workmanship is
perfect ; never has a hid-
den defect been found.
Mark that I say — hid-
den defect ; their work
was conscientiously
performed. So sin-
cerely did they believe
that the gods were spec-
tators of their artistic
endeavors, and so thor-
oughly were they con-
vinced of their ability to pro-
duce an absolutely perfect

SENTRIES AT THE TEMPLE GATE

JAPAN— THE COUNlRY

I5»

A WAYSIDE BUDDHA

work, that in deference to Heaven they
deUberately stopped short of perfection
and purposely incorporated a defect in
this structure which without it would
have stood irreproachable in symmetry
and beauty. If we look closely at its
carved pillars, we shall find that the
lace-like design on one of them is in-
verted ; — they carved it upside down
on purpose. Thus did the pious
sculptors turn aside the wrath of the
gods ; for absolute perfection in
this gate, the work of human
hands, would surely have aroused
the jealousy of Heaven.
And is it not marvelous,
the preservation for so
;; many years of these art-

treasures, done in fragile
wood, so daintily carved, so
Thousands of pilgrims annually come
and go ; an endless procession of worshipers, all speechless
with admiration, has been passing through these courts for
about three hundred years. But these pilgrims and these
worshipers are Japanese, lovers of beautiful things ; not 3
leaf is missing from the sculptured branches, not a petal from
the flowers, the carved fishes have not lost a scale, nor the
dragons a tooth or a claw. Nikko, in the keeping of our
race, would not last fifty years unless its treasures were
encased in glass and its courts and terraces guarded by police !
Another wondrous gate, the " Karamon, " is the portal of
a courtyard still more sacred, covering the topmost of the
great terraces on which stands the sanctuary — -the dwelli:ig-
place of the old warrior's spirit. It is the earthly abode of

delicately colored ?

152

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

the soul of lyeyasu, the hero deified and worshiped by his
people. What had this lyeyasu done that he should be so
honored ? We know him as the greatest of those feudal
chiefs who in the Middle Ages ruled Japan in the name of the
imperial puppets called Mikados. We know that he con-
trived in 1600 to overthrow a dynasty of Shoguns, as the

Photograph by Kimbet

mihtary chiefs were called, and that upon its ruins he founded
the power- of the house of Tokugawa. We know that he
ruled Japan with a wise but most despotic sway for many
years, and that finally, while still in the zenith of his glory
and great power, he resigned his title and his scepter to his
son, and spent the evening of his life in calm retirement, as

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

153

was the custom of great princes in those days. He left a
deep impress on the customs, thought, and history of the
people whom he ruled. He built a castle at a place called
Yeddo. To-day about two million people dwell round about
it, and the place is called Tokyo. It is the greatest city of
Japan. He centered in his court at Yeddo all the wealth and

THl- kAKAMON

real power of the realm, leaving to the Mikado, at Kyoto, the
empty imperial titles and the superstitious veneration of the
people. He subdued unruly princes, forced them to acknowl-
edge his supremacy, and thus welded them into that firm
feudal structure, which fell only at the shock of contact with
the new civilization of our century. The other deified Shogun

154

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

whose spirit dwells amid the splendors of Nikko was grand-
son to lyeyasu. He completed the great work begun by his
illustrious ancestor, for lyemitsu fixed the final rivets in the
ship of Feudalism and launched it on its long voyage, well
officered and well equipped to meet the storms of the cen-
turies. So perfect was it in its organization that the whole

nation from prince to pauper was involved in an intricate
system of espionage. One man in every five was responsible
for the acts of four who were placed under him ; he, in turn,
was held to account by a higher officer who ruled the street ;
the head officer of each street was under the authority of
other officers ; and so on through a score of ranks to the

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

155

great feudal lords who owed allegiance only to the Shogun ;
and he, true master of all, bowed in mock humility before the
throne of the deified but helpless Mikado. He it was who
cast out the Portuguese Jesuits and essayed to stamp out the
Christian faith. He closedjapan 's gates to all the world, and,
as he hoped, for all time. But these gates were forced open
at the imperious summons brought by Perry's fleet in 1853.
But the two reigns of lyeyasu and lyemitsu, though full of
arbitrary deeds, laid the foundation for two hundred and fifty
years of perfect peace and wonderful prosperity, a long,
happy period all but unique in the history of nations. It is
for this that they are loved and honored by the people of
to-day. And though their work has been undoing now for

forty years, they are still worshiped

by the Japanese. And shall

not we also offer up

our humble petition

and pray them to protect this land of

beauty from the modern

r.BNTlBMKN OF THE CLOTH

156

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

vandals whc would rob her of her ancient calm and make
her like the hurried fretful nations of the West ?

The temple dedicated to lyeyasu is only the abode of his
spirit ; his ashes rest high on the mountain 's steep and shady
slope. We must climb hundreds of steps to look upon his tomb.
The granite balusters of the stairway to the tomb are clothed

fhotograph by KImbel

INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF lYEMlTSU

with soft, damp mosses, and one day we found two priests,
brush in hand, actually dusting this green velvet made by
nature. Finally, far up the mountain-side, we come to the
holiest place of all, the mortuary court. The bronze gate bears
Sanscrit inscriptions, and the crest of the Tokugawas. Bronze
dogs sit on either side in grim and silent warning, for yonder

i'iiotograpn by liaami

THE STAIRWAY TO THE TOMB

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

159

threshold may be crossed only by Majesty. Pilgrims and vis-
itors may, however, peer between the granite posts of the
surrounding barrier. The funeral urn is simple, pagoda-like
in form ; but mingled with the bronze there is no inconsider-
able quantity of gold. The presence of the precious metal
is but faintly suggested by a tinge differing from that of ordi-
nary bronze, and, after all the lavish richness of the temples
below, we find a
restful calm in the
severe simplicity
of this burial
court, to which
the glittering
splendors of Nik-
ko are but an in-
troduction. The
lesson is an old
one, taught in a
language strange
and new to us,
and illustrated
with an art most
exquisite, — that
all things earth-
ly, how-
ever

''-^??t:'

[6o

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

glorious, however sumptuous and beautiful, lead toward the
grave, irrevocably.

From this mausoleum on the mountain we may look down
in two directions. Below us on one side are the roofs and

THE TOMB OF lYEYASU

ridges of the clustered temples, whence come the murmuring
of chanting priests, the sound of drums, the tinkling of the
little temple-bells, the booming of the greater. But if we
peer down into the forest on the other side, we find that all is
verdure, and far off in the solemn great depths of the ravines,
cascades of unseen water make a perpetual music ; and as
sweet sylvan sounds come from the rich gloom of the v/ood
to mingle with the deep tones of the thunderous great bells,
which ever and anon speak to the solitude, we recognize that

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

i6i

although art has done much, it is to nature that Nikko owes
its marvelous impressiveness.

Nikko is the starting-point for our projected tramp over
an unbeaten track, in search of towns and villages where beds
and tables and chairs are things unknown. Our route lies
westward almost to the far-away coast of the Sea of Japan,
thence southward in zigzags to the Tokaido,- the great high-
way connecting Japan's two capitals, Tokyo and Kyoto.

Under a dubious sky we make an early start, and after a
few hours of easy tramping find ourselves in the midst of most

Photograph by Enami

will RK n IN AST SI.KKPS

l62

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

lovely scenery, ascending by a well-graded path along the
course of a mountain-river toward Lake Chuzenji, which lies
five thousand feet above the sea. We wear, bound to the

A NIKKO GARDEN

soles of our shoes, thick ' ' zuaraji, ' ' a sort of sandals of tough
straw which make the stony paths as soft and pleasant to the
foot as the finest carpet. My ' ' boy ' ' and the guide engaged by
my companions trudge on behind us ; our wardrobes and pro-
visions, packed in baskets, follow on tired-looking pack-horses.
The waters of the river come chiefly from the lake we are in
search of, but their volume is swelled by hundreds of cascades
falling from each overhanging rock, sometimes at the very
roadside, providing thus a shower-bath for the sweltering
rikisha men and travelers as they dash through its icy spray.

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

163

We shall not be, for two days yet, really out of the beaten
track, for the mountain lake of Chuzenji is visited by hundreds
of Europeans every year. At intervals are wayside tea-
houses, clean and pretty, and always placed to command some
lovely prospect. We make short halts at each of these and
then resume our climb, sometimes in the glaring sun, some-
times through dark, cool woods. My traveling companions
are just the kind of men that one would choose for such a
ramble. Between the long Bostonian and the "brief" New
Yorker there exists a firm friendship and an astonishing differ-
ence in personal altitude. While the one draws murmurs of
astonishment from admiring crowds of peasants, because of
his unheard-of height, the other is more popular with the little

MrRML'RING WATERS

164

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

people, being just about their size. And as I follow them
along the zigzag path which winds continually upward to a
tiny tea-house hung there above among the trees like a bird-
cage on an ivied wall, I congratulate myself on having so

photograph by Enami

NIKKO TOWN

congenial a pair of fellow-tramps. The bird-cage proves, on
reaching it, to be a rustic chaya like all the others, and we
stop to taste their yellow tea and eat their polychrome cakes.
There two old gentlemen on a bench are leisurely enjoying a
light repast and an apparently heavy conversation. Probably
they are discussing the peculiarities of these strange foreign
travelers who stay but long enough to catch their breath and
then hasten on, instead of drinking in, to the utmost, the
lovely prospect on which one may look down from this aerial

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY 165

caf^. Truly it is worth our while to pause a moment and
enjoy the picture there before us — a map of the pretty region
we have just traversed. The deep ravines and valleys through
which we have made our way are suggested only by ripples in
the sea of brilliant autumn foliage which rolls at our feet.
There, tossed lightly on its surface, is the frail little tea-house
where we rested not an hour ago, looking as if it were about
to founder beneath the green foam of a huge verdurous
breaker. No picture, no description can give a true idea of
the glorious aspect of these mountain forests when their foli-
age is touched by the artist of the autumn and transformed into
a glowing mass of color, from deepest red to palest yellow,
with intermediate tints of many shades. It was my good for-
tune to visit these lovely regions more than once, and when
late in November I reached this spot a second time and looked
upon the perfected picture which nature had but begun to
paint at my first visit, I knew at once whence the bold contri-
vers of the Nikko temples took their startling scheme of color.

TMI-: ROAD TO ClIl'ZKNJI
l'hot,.i,.rr,pli by Klmbel

i66

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

But we continue
on and up, past points
commanding even
finer vistas, until we
reach a pretty forest
on the mountain-top;
and there we lose our
way and take a path
we should have left
alone. But soon we
come to bless the
happy chance that
led us away from
the main road and
brought us to the
brink of an abyss into
which tumbles with
a thundering sound
the water of the lake,
forming a mighty
crystal column more
than three hundred
feet in height. This
Kegon-no-taki is the
finest fall in all Ja-
pan ; no picture justly
represents the awful
depths of this narrow
gorge or the bril-
liant coloring of rock
and foliage, — these
should be seen ; and
we should hear the
deep dull grumbling

Photograph by Tamamura
CASCADES FROM THS CHUZENJI ROAD

Pliotogrnpli by Tamainura

KEGON-NO-TAKI

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY 169

of the angry waters and feel the cool refreshing spray which
rises in great clouds from this deep gulf, at times conceal-
ing the entire scene behind a veil of misty vapor. Of
course a tea-house is near by, and there we are directed

THE LONG BOSTONIAN AND THE SHORT NEW VokkKR

to the proper path ; and a half-hour later we are looking
down upon the waters of Lake Chuzenji from our balcony
at the " ya(/oya," as the country inns are called. This little
village is in the summer season always packed with pilgrims
who come to climb the holy peak of Nantai San, which rises
just behind it ; but now we are the only strangers in the de-
serted hamlet, and as such we have the best of care. Upon
arrival we are received by pretty nesan who take off our
shoes and stockings, bring pails of steaming water, and bathe
our tired feet, then give us furry slippers and show us to our
clean and pretty rooms with paper walls and matted floors.

I/O

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

Soon a good meal is served upon a foreign table, for we are
still upon the beaten track, and we sleep this night in beds for
perhaps the last time on our tramp. The lake itself serves as
the washbowl for all the inmates of the inn, and early every
morning the nesan trip down a narrow plank, and, one by one,
kneeling, make their somewhat hasty ablutions. The morn-
ing toilet is very simple ; it is in the late afternoon or at night
that all Japan gets into its hot bath and revels in cleanliness.

A WAYSIDE CHAYA

In Japan we have that delightful anomaly — a people at
once picturesque and clean. Most Oriental races delight the
artistic while they shock the other senses. Not so with these
little people, for with them godliness comes after cleanliness ;
the tub takes precedence of the temple. And what an insti-
tution it is, this Japanese tub ! The tub of our inn is like a
barrel cut in half ; just room for one to squat inside ; beneath

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

171

it, a tiny stove which heats the water to a temperature to us at
first unbearable but to the Japanese just exactly right. One
after another into the same tub go the native guests ; and not
only into the same tub but into the same water, for to heat it
afresh for every bather would take all night. Sometimes no
fewer than forty people, guests and servants, revel in the one
and only bath of the hotel. The men take precedence in this

AUTUMNAI. FOLIAGE

as in all things, the women follow when their lords and supe-
riors have finished. Foreign guests, however, are offered the
first dip, for the Japanese know that we have a peculiar and
senseless prejudice against marching in the rear-guard of
bathers. But ere you utterly condemn this system, learn that
all the bathers wash themselves before getting into the tub
to indulge in the luxury of intense heat. To the tired
travelers these boiling caldrons are indeed restful, and once
accustomed to their scalding waters, we give up the chilly

172

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

Anglo-Saxon tub and adopt the cus
torn of the Japanese.

The holy mountain Nantai
San appears no more formid-
able than a grassy hill ; but
this impression is dissipated
when once we have begun
the tiresome ascent under
the guidance of a Chuzeuji
coolie who bears upon his
back the camera and the
provisions. To climb the
holy mountain we must first
propitiate its guardian-priests
in the temple at its base. When
properly approached, they will
open a huge gate and indicate the

O TOMO SAN

OUR BALCONY AT CHUZENII

JAPAN -THE COUNTRY

^7i

path, which is at first a series of steps made of boughs and
roots and stones and carpeted with thousands of worn-out
straw-sandals cast off by former pilgrims. The stairs end
in a maze of tangled roots protruding from the precipitous
slopes, over which we drag ourselves upward by means of the
trunks and boughs of the trees. Then come bare surfaces of

THE VADOVA AT CHLV-

rock where chains and ladders assist the pious pilgrim. There
is, however, no danger in this long ascent, for the forest
reaches almost to the summit, the great trees giving a sense of
security in spite of the sharp angle at which the mountain rises.
About two hours after entering the great gate below, I reach
the holy summit, whence, looking off, I behold far, far away
— almost two hundred miles to the southward — high above

174

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

the other mountain-ranges and floating on the surface of an
ocean of white fleecy clouds, the matchless cone, — snow-draped
and spotless — of Japan's holiest mountain — Fuji-no-yama.
Yes, though I could not see its lower slopes, its majestic
snow-cap was plainly visible, riding on the vapors at an alti-
tude so amazingly greater than that of other peaks that at first
I sought it vainly near their level. Then, gazing skyward, I
discovered at that incredible height the white and dazzling

pyramid. My
guide stands with
bowed head be-
fore a little shrine
and makes his
peace with the
spirits of the
mountain while I
sit on a conve-
nient boulder and
proceed to make
my peace with the
demon of hunger
and to lighten the
provision - basket,
my attention di-
vided between
contemplation of
the lovely pano-
rama and the
management of
the chop-sticks
with which I am
trying to feed my-
self. We now de-
scend the farther

CLIMBING NANTAI SAN

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

177

slope, and reach by afternoon the pretty village of Yumoto,
nestling in the emerald arms of the surrounding hills and
mirrored in a little lake some seven hundred feet above
Chuzenji. This region, though fair to the eye, offends the
nose by its strong sulphurous vapors, suggesting a certain un-
popular department of another world. Yumoto is famed for
its hot sulphur-baths, and should we cross the lake and enter

eaotoginiu oy A.lmbe[

NANTAI SAM

the village, the startling simplicity of the bathing-arrange-
ments would so shock our Occidental sensibilities that it is
best to be content with the distant view. The streets of the
town are lined with inns for patients, and with bathing-sheds,
which as a rule are open on three sides. In full view of
passers-by are tanks of yellow boiling water in which men,
women, and children sit and soak, or from which they emerge
12

178

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

THE SUMMIT OF NANTAI SAN

with the greatest unconcern and stroll into the narrow streets
to cool themselves. Some of these tanks boast not even a

ISi

MOONLKiHT ON CHUZENJI

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

l8l

roof, and many groups of brown-skinned parboiled people
gambol in the sunlight with childish innocence and the bland-
est unconsciousness of having violated the proprieties. Yet
these very people who thus freely disregard what seem to us
innate sentiments of modesty,
look with horror on the pict-
ures of ball-gowns and
ballet costumes worn
by women of Euro-
pean lands. With
them the neces-
sary is always
proper. It is
only when there
is an element of
ostentation in
the e.xposure of
the person that a
lack of garments
becomes immodest.

CROSSIM. niK LAST HKAT" OK THE IIKAIEN TRACK

l82

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

The walk from Yumoto to Chuzenji is one of the most
famous for its beauty in all Japan. Lovely indeed are the
rushing waters, blazing maple-trees and mossy pines, and
the gray peaks of the mountains rising all about us.

Quite late at night we reach once more the shores of Lake
Chuzenji. Its surface is ruffled by the chill night-wind, and

WHERE THE TRAMP BEGINS

as we watch the heavy clouds scud swiftly across the moonlit
sky, casting their fleeting shadows on the waves, we feel that
this picture is indeed a fitting close to a day so full of beauti-
ful and varied scenes. But even richer days await us.

On the far shore of the lake a depression in the mountain-
chain marks the pass of Ashio, at the entrance to the Watar-
ase Valley. At that pass we are to bid farewell to the haunts
of foreign tourists and begin our tramp along an unbeaten track.

The last "beat " of the beaten track lies somewhere about
the middle of the lake. In one of the pictures our expedition
is seen in the very act of crossing it in a sampan. My boy.

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

1 83

the faithful Tsuni Horiuchi, is
binding to our feet the straw
waraji, which are to matte us
surefooted as mules on the twenty
miles of mountain-path which lie
before us. The guide Tamaki
San sits aloof ; he performs no
manual labor, but devotes all his
energies to the consumption of
American cigarettes and the dis-
pensing of our store of filthy
lucre, — incidentally smoothing
away by his knowledge of the
land many a little wrinkle which
might otherwise rob us of that
peace of mind so necessary to

the traveler who would fully resting

profit by his wanderings and carry home with him impressions
worth preserving. The coolie boatmen are a happy lot who

■«Ss^I

OUK ■ACGACE.CARAVAN

1 84

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

seem to think it an odd idea, tiiis
tramp of ours in the far interior
on foot, when we could well
afford to ride or even stay at
home in ease and comfort.
Our boat soon touches
at a village of about
four houses, which lies
at the foot of the pass
. of Ashio. Here we
disembark, and Tam-
aki superintends the
loading of our bas-
kets and provisions
on the backs of the
four coolies who are
to act as bearers for
the day. Pack-horses
would be useless, for the
path can be traveled only
by men on foot, so steep

AN ALPINB BIT

and narrow is it in some
places. A short stiff climb
brings us to the top of
the ridge whence we take
a farewell look at Lake
Chuzenji and then begin
the long descent of the
Watarase Valley, sometimes
along a dizzy trail, sometimes

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

TONSORIAL TRIMMINGS

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

185

down the bed of a mountain-stream, jumping from rock to
rock. Our guide and boy are not the best of pedestrians,
and we stop at all the finest points of view to give their short
legs time to bring them up in line. The coolies, on the
contrary, are most accomplished tramps, taking their twenty,
thirty, or forty miles a day with ease, seemingly uncon-
scious of the heavy burdens piled upon their backs, and sure-
footed as a chamois, — thanks to the strav/ waraji.

It might be said that in Japan there are more shoemakers
tliaii ill :i1l the other corners of the earth, for almost every

MOCNIAIN KURUMAYAS

peasant makes and sells waraji, and in every tea-house, shop,
or temple by the roadside, hang clusters of this inexpensive
footgear. For half a cent we may be nicely shod — one pair
of sandals lasting on good roads about two days, but on roads
such as we sometimes travel two pairs a day were usually
worn to shreds. The natives are thus always sure of finding
extra shoes wherever they may be ; but as our feet surpass in
size the largest ever dreamed of in this land of little people,
we carry special sizes made to order in Yokohama for our own
use and comfort. These, when worn with the native socks,

ise

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

THE TABLE A
THE CHAIRS AT GODO

or '' iabi, " which, mitten-fashion,
have a separate place for the
great toe, are admirable for
tramping ; and thus shod
we make good time
afoot, grateful to be
spared the wear and
tear of heavy leather
boots. The path be-
comes more and more
picturesque as we ad-
vance. We feast our
eyes on the delicate yel-
lows and the rich browns
and reds of the autumnal foli-
Far below, the little stream,

in whose very bed we walked a few miles back, has, aided by

THE LANDLORD'S FAMILY

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

187

a thousand tributaries, become a rushing river, fighting its way
around the bases of the heights along whose richly tinted slopes
we travel. For two entire days we follow this ever-swelling
torrent, the first day on foot, the second in jinrikishas, for we
wish to test the vaunted powers of the inland kurumayas. A
cheerful lot these runners, ever smiling even while tugging at

A VILLAGK STKKET

their rolling chairs over the frightful road where every rut
threatens to capsize us. The "push man " keeps a firm hold
on the bar behind, and rights the vehicle each time it lurches
a bit too far, or lifts it gently over the fallen logs or the deep
washouts in the road. What legs these fellows wear ! Some
have the calf developed almost to deformity, the great balls
of muscle standing out and stretching the brown skin to
the utmost. They wear but little in hot weather, the
summer uniform consisting of the "fiindoshi" of white
linen and a set of shoulder straps, helped out perhaps by
a beautifully tattooed design upon their limbs or bodies.
But every time we reach the outskirts of a town, they halt

188

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

and slip into their cotton coats ; for a new law prohibits this
healthful seminudity save in the open country.

We camp the first night in a dingy inn at Godo, where
from some mysterious closet the servants bring forth with pride
a table and three chairs to prove that they are not ignorant
of the ways of foreigners. But to them foreign cookery is a
sealed book, and we prepare to enter on a course of native
" chow. " To our great surprise up comes our Horiuchi with
a dainty dinner after our own fashion, for, unknown to us,
this invaluable "boy" has brought with him a frying-pan
and other imported kitchen utensils ; and now that we are
beyond the reach of semiforeign influences, he triumphantly
appears in the new character of chef, and by his delicious
cooking so shakes our resolutions to be orthodox, that we
submit without a murmur to his incomparable omelettes, his
fried chicken, and his corned-beef hash. Yes, Chicago canned
corned-beef has penetrated even these remote valleys, in the
train of kerosene and lamps and the deadly cigarette. Our

Fliutojjrajjh by Otis A. Poole

^m^

l.\ IHli AL:1H0R'S LKCl'URE FACTUKV

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

191

stock of bread gives out quite early, but native rice affords a
delicious substitute, and so we find tfie threatened hardships
of the interior to be far from unbearable.

We are objects of intense interest to the good man of the
inn who, with his wife and children, stares at us by the hour.

iiy Enarni

MURAMATSU HOTEL AT IKAO

Not pretty, these village girls of Godo, some scarcely pic-
turesque ; but most of them have gentle voices and gentle
little ways in striking contrast with their round and pudgy
faces and their coarse hard-worked hands. It is at Godo that
for the first time we go bedless to bed, for that one table and
those three chairs were the only things not strictly Japanese
in all the house. At night the servants bring out from capa-
cious cupboards thick quilts called '' futons," which they lay

192

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

upon the matted floor. We get into our own sleeping-bags
— sheets sewed up in the form of capacious sacks — and
retire between two of these wadded futons, our heads upon a
third rolled up and shoved into our private pillow-cases. The
pillow of Japan is an impossibility, a block of lacquered wood
topped by a sausage-shaped cushion and placed beneath the
neck, reminding one of a headsman's block. We soon reduce
the performance of going to bed to a science, knowing just
how to have the futon laid to avoid the draughts that blow
through every crack ; and after a few nights on the floor we
began to find the floor quite good enough for tired travelers.
A few days later, after a long journey up into another
range of mountains, we reach Ikao, an interesting health-
resort, a place of hot baths and hotels and steaming gutters
of boiling mineral water. Our hotel, they tell us, is "up-
town, ' ' and in Ikao this is no indefinite direction, for a glance

CHOP-STICKS AND CHOW

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

193

at the main thoroughfare resolves all doubt as to which way
to turn. It is one giant stairway bordered by bathing-
houses. We mount this abrupt avenue, where at every
corner we trip over the network of steaming bamboo pipes
which conduct the boiHng waters to distant bathing-places.
We glance in at the doorless front of the public bath-houses,
and there see men and women in a state of nature being

THK WAY TO HARUNA

gently parboiled, the sexes separated by a bamboo railing —
for bathing-laws are much more strict than in the early days.
We turn into narrow alleys and there find early risers sousing
themselves and their lacquer dishes and their babies in the
seething gutters, for in these mountain towns there are gutters
of running water, hot and cold, for the free use of the people.
After observing one housewife washing her babies, and
another, lower down, washing her dishes in the same gutter,

194

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

we decided that a place of residence at the top of the town
would be for very obvious reasons the most desirable.

The Hotel Muramatsu is the leading caravansary in this
Oriental Karlsbad ; and upon its two-foot-wide piazzas sit the
guests, sunning themselves in the brief intervals between the
bathing hours. The buildings give us an excellent idea of
Japanese construction ; we distinguish the sliding frames cov-
ered with translucent paper which form indiscriminately the
partitions, doors, and windows of the chambers ; at one end
of each veranda we see the wooden panels, which at night are

A BRIDGE AT ilARUNA

rUotugi^li by ram^niuta

THE GATE OF HARUNA

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

197

run out into grooves, tightly closing the balconies and shutting
out light and air as well as wind and rain. When, by request,
we were awakened very early in the morning, it was done in
the coolest manner imaginable ; for, without a signal, three
little maids entered the corner chamber where we lay rolled in
our bags of sheeting, and calmly removed and took away the
three outer walls of our boudoir, leaving us to all intents and
purposes out in the cold, cold world to make our toilet in the
full view of other early risers assembled in the street below.
Our first meal in native style was enjoyed after a six-mile
tramp from Ikao to a lonely yadoya on the shore of a moun-
tain lake called Haruna. We had, of course, in Yokohama,
eaten Japanese dinners, but mainly from curiosity, and usually
immediately after a table-d'hote at the Grand Hotel ; but here
we have true hunger for our sauce, and as the frying-pan of
Tsuni is not with us, we needs must test the cuisine of the inn.

PACK HORSES AT IKAO

198

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

The old man of the house has caught for us a splendid salmon-
trout, and this, well-cooked, with smaller fish, raw " daicon,"
a sort of radish, and an omelette made like a roll of jelly-cake,
with sea-weed in place of the jelly, are washed down by dozens
of cups of tea and several bottles of the hot rice-wine, or
' ' saki. ' ' And what a teacher hunger is in the art of using chop-
sticks ! We performed this day surprising feats of dexterity.

TUF. HOTKI- MtTRAMATRU AT IKA

After the feast we straighten out our folded legs — which,
however, are fast becoming used to being doubled under us in
these bare chairless houses — and set out for the real object
of our excursion — the Shinto shrine of Haruna.

What is this "Shinto," or "Way of the Gods," the so-
called ' ' National Religion of Japan ' ' to which this shrine of
Haruna is dedicated ? To define it well is difficult, it is so
vague a fabric of belief ; although previous to the importation
of the Buddhist faith it was the only religion of Japan.

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

199

This Shinto cult traces its origin
to the Sun Goddess, the
ancestress of native Maj-
esty, and thus estab-
lishes for itself a
great antiquity.
Its holiest shrine
is at ls6, where
this Sun God-
dess holds her
court, while
throughout the
land are innum-
erable lesser tem-
ples in honor of the
deified Mikados of the
past, and others sacred
to the gods of wind and fire
and food, to the gods of certain
mountains, certain trees, some even to the god of pestilence !
As we proceed, the rocks about us become more fantastic,
taller, slenderer, until the climax of this unearthly scene is
reached, and we stand before
the gate of entry, wedged tightly
in between the verdured cliff
and a lofty monolithic column of
reddish rock, which like an un-
cut obelisk stands balanced on
the hillside, guarding a little
gate that is a gem of the archi-
tecture of another age.
Even Nikko with all its
splendor boasts not a
piece of work that for

Pholognphs by Otis A. Poole

STUDIES OP CHILDLIFB

200

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

simple, exquisite design and for perfect workmanship can rival
this gate of Haruna. It is in natural wood toned by the
centuries - — no paint nor lacquer mars its lace-like tracing.
The heavy spreading roof is supported by pillars and panels
carved with designs so delicate and minute, so deep and wide-
spread, that we wonder there is left sufficient strength to
bear up the crushing weight of its four gables. Nay, rather
let us say that from this roof depend veils of fine old lace,
brown with the dust of centuries, but still preserving the pat-
terns woven in by the patient workers of the long ago. Mount-
ing the threescore steps before us, we enter at the sacred portal
beyond which other steps lead on and up into a lantern-
haunted enclosure shut in by walls of rock and verdure. The
God of the Earth and the God of Fire are the deities most
favored here, for as children of the sun they hold high places
in the Shinto pantheon. So holy is this court that even the
Mikado — great grandson many times removed of the Goddess

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

A STUDY OK CHILDLIPG

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

20 1

of the Sun --may not be carried up these steps, but must like
ordinary mortals ascend on foot. It is, however, only since
the restoration of the Emperor, in 1868, that Shintoism has
in a measure regained its ancient vogue ; for after the advent

COCHODA

of Buddhism, in the seventh century, Shinto sank to a myth
unknown to the people, so overshadowed was it by the gor-
geous ritual and the deep moral precepts of the imported faith.
For, strange as it may seem, this indigenous religion has no
moral code, no rules of life, and promises after death nothing
that is definite. The only formula of Shinto is this : " Honor
the Emperor and obey your natural impulses, ' ' surely the
essence of simplicity. The absence of a moral code is ac-
counted for by modern native writers on the ground of the
innate perfection of Japanese humanity which obviates the
necessity for such moral props. It is only outcasts like

202

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

the Chinese or the peo-
ple of Western nations
whose natural depravity
renders the occasional
appearance of sages and
reformers necessary !
We see above the en-
trance huge bells, in form
like sleigh-bells, each
with a cord attached by
which the worshiper may
jingle one or more ac-
cording to the importance
of his petition, and thus
rouse to attentive listen-
ing the drowsy spirits
of the Shinto deities who are thought to be lost in sleep
when not engaged in giving ear to praying pilgrims.

We finally turn away and journey back along the valley
path, casting regretful glances behind us at this unique and

ancient fane, which has impressed
us far more deeply than even
splendid Nikko.

The usual amount
of chatter and con-
fusion attends our
final departure
from Ikao ; but at
last our baskets,
cameras, and the
precious frying-
pan are safely be-
stowed upon the un-
willing backs of three

Photographs by Otis A. Poole

STUDIES OF CHILDLIFE

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

203

rare old pack-horses who seem conscious of the fact that
horses are not common in Japan. The " bctlo," or
groom, who leads one of the animals, is a gentleman of
the old school, his head dressed in the classic style ; a
V-shaped bit of territory is shaved clean on top of his pate,
and his hind hair is gathered into a short stiff cue, pointing
over his crown as if to indicate the proper way to go — straight

A FARMHOl'SB

forward ! The horses being anything but swift, we let them
shamble on ahead while we linger to bid farewell to the little
nesan. We say to them the prettiest things we have learned
in the tourists' phrase-books, and they receive the compli-
ments with deprecating smiles ; and then, as we stalk away,
they shower on us " sayoimras " and " an'^a/os." To
avoid confusion let me say that "arigatos " and "sayonaras "
are neither flowers nor old shoes, but are the words which in

204

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

l»

^■VPlHi^l^^V^^^^H ^K^*

^^IB^ ' ^Hlr^S^^l^v^^'-' " '

•ki

t^N

THREE GENERATIONS

the mouths of those little ladies mean, "thank you" and
"good-by, " pronounced " sT-yo-na-ra " and " a-ring-a-to. "
Our tramp from Ikao to Haramachi, the next resting-place,
leads through the valley of the Adzumagawa, a rich and fer-
tile region where a thrifty population
have built their clean and pleas-
ant villages. We stop at many
a farmhouse or roadside inn,
sometimes to rest, sometimes
to watch the different proc-
esses of the silk industry as
carried on by the good house-
wives. About us are acres of
mulberry- bushes nourishing
millions of the silk-producing
worms that yield the filmy
fibers from which the dainty
fabrics of Japan are fashioned.

photograph by Otis A. Poole

TONSORIAL TRIMMINGS

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

207

Near almost every house a tiny rice-mill, its wheels turned
by the roadside rivulet, performs its never-ending task with
many a splash and thump ; for the machinery is a set of
crude mallets continually pounding away in bins of grain.
Each village, usually a straggling double-row of houses,
is drawn out to an interminable length, while a step from the
back garden of any of the dwellings brings Us into the open

country, so thin are these attenuated towns. Back of the
gardens on each side stretch away the cultivated fields cover-
ing the entire valley floor, while the terraces on the neigh-
boring hillsides tell of long years of careful cultivation.

At one roadside cottage we pause to watch a proud young
mother who has brought her red-faced baby to call upon its
grandmother. The old woman talks to it in "baby Japan-
ese, " and makes just the same kind of fuss that grandmas do

2o8

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

TONSORIAL TRIMMINGS

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

n other lands. These people, though
appearing poor, are neatly dressed ;
the house is clean with that spot-
less cleanliness of the Japa-
nese ; and though simple, their
robes are very neat, and the
younger woman's hair is
elaborately arranged in the
prevailing mode. But this
manner of coiffure strikes
us as too suggestive of being
built, too firm and "slick-
looking ' ' — not strokable. It
seems as if it must give rise to
much anxiety during the night
for fear of breaking it, for, as we
know, it is done over only once a
week. The wooden pillow, however, which touches only
the neck, insures the safety of the complicated structure. As

Photoyr.ipli by Otis A. Poole

IN MATSURI ATTIRE

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

209

for the infant, if
he have an older
brother, he will
pass the next few
years of his young
life upon that eld-
er brother 's back,
for that is where
all the babies in
Japan live, — on
somebody 's back.
Yes, all day
long the infants
dangle from the
shoulders of
brother, sister,
mother, or aunt,
the father's back alone being exempt. In slumber the baby's
head falls limply back and wobbles painfully as the waking
member of the combination plays tag, or hop-scotch, runs,
jumps, or fights; and when the sleeper is by chance disturbed
and tries to remonstrate with a plaintixe wail, a few vigorous
humpings of the back on which he rides reduce him to a
choking silence. One happy infant did we see who had
escaped thus far the torture of his sus-
pended contemiwraries, for he rested
in a perambulator, a thing most
rare in Japanese babyland.

Now, if we ask the age of
the children, we bring to light
some curious facts concerning
birthdays in Japan. Suppose
one youngster to be bom in Jan-
uary; suppose him to be favored

Photographs by Otis \. Toole

BABIES AND BROTHERS

2IO

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

with the advent of a little sister on the 31st of December
of that self-same year. Well, strange as it may seem,
on the following first day of January, both babies are called
two years old. Thus Japanese children are one year old when
born, and they are two years old the following New Year's
day. No one in Japan has a private birthday ; whether born
in June or in October, each waits for New Year's Day to
celebrate together ; then they start even in the race of life.

We have tried nearly all the means of transport in Japan,
but not until we reached the town of Shibu did the existence
of the " bas/ui " thrust itself on our attention. Here, at this
otherwise attractive town, we come in personal contact with
this marvel of the native carriage-maker's art. The illustra-
tion flatters it, the likeness is not truthful ; the horses appear
almost fat and well groomed, the paint looks fresh, the driver

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

311

seems a mild and honest-featured man, and the chief pecu-
liarity of the vehicle is not properly in evidence. That pecu-
liarity is the total absence of springs. Can you take in the
fulness of this revelation .' We did not until we started. I

OUR RIKISHA CARAVAN

have said the roads were bad. They are ; but we never knew
how utterly depraved they were until during our twenty miles
over hill and dale, the basha with fiendish malice accented
every rut and emphasized every boulder. A conductor ran
ahead, and with a tooting horn heralded our
approach, the peasants scrambling into ditches
to give us full room to pass, for they stand in
great respect and awe of
this Oriental tally-ho.
Thereafter we
traveled entirely
by rikisha.
Happy-nat-
ured and un-
dismayed by
their arduous
daily labors wera

MY TOURINt; CAR

212

JAPAN -THE COUNTRY

the three runners, who for four long days dragged me
through the pelting showers and under the burning sun
with equal energy and speed, happy when I cared to dis-
mount and do on foot the steep ascents. Sometimes they
traveled tandem, but where the roads were roughest the
leader took his place astern to push and steady the swaying
chair when deep washouts or stony places set it rocking and
threatened a disaster. The novelty of rikisha travel soon
passes, and we come to find the seat small and none too
comfortable ; and so, unless the mud is very deep, we go on
foot by preference. But in the pouring rains we find a cozy
refuge inside the rikisha, the buggy-like hood raised, and the
rubber lap-robes spread. When tempted to complain of dis-
comforts, we are shamed to silence by the happy, cheerful
ways of the human horses who do the work and very seldom
grumble. We employ seven kurumas, three for the masters,
two for the servants, and two for the impedimenta. And as
this train, its motive power furnished by forty-two brown,

A BAD BIT OF ROAD

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

ai3

bare legs, wound through the valleys, skirted the mountain
crests, or dashed through country villages, we became all too
familiar with the monotonous chant of the runners who
seemed to cry in chorus mile after mile, " JVan daku na.

A RIKISHA PORTACK

Nan daku na, " while to the rider in the hindmost chair the
twenty-one straw disks which served for hats appeared, as
they wobbled wiklly from side to side, like a lot of frantic
pancakes pursuing one another down the road. We made
about thirty miles each day, but when we think how many
miles of broken rock, how many miles of clinging muddy
earth, made up that road, the distance covered is a credit to the
willing legs of our untiring kurumayas. One day we covered
forty-nine and one-half miles in eleven hours and forty-five
minutes, the road being very hilly, and crossing three low
passes. Yet the runners seemed quite fresh at the finish.
At last we reach the valley of the Tenryu River, one of
the most celebrated in Japan. It flows almost due south and

214

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

falls into the sea near Hammamatsu. Our long line of jin-
rikishas follows its tortuous course for two days, now and then
fording the rocky tributaries or crossing them on rough planks
where bridges have been washed away by recent floods.

At Tokimata our days of rikisha-riding end, for there
begins the voyage down the rapids of the Tenryugawa, ninety
miles to Hammamatsu on the coast. Therefore Tamaki pays

TOKIMATA

off the runners, each man receiving about four dollars for the
four-days' work, and as they must travel four days more to
reach their homes again, we instruct Tamaki to add a little
sak^ money with our compliments ; and with this we forget
** our human horses. But they do not forget us. As we sit
upon the floor over our evening tea, we hear soft footfalls in
the corridor, a screen glides aside, and into our little room
file fourteen long-robed individuals who drop upon their

rtiotograph liy Taniannira

THE TEXRVUGAWA

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

21?

knees, put their honest heads on the floor, and burst out into
a chorus of " Osakate oki arigalo, " which we know enough
to translate as, ' ' Our biggest thanks for the honorable sak^
money ! ' ' Then each one makes his private bow and thanks
to each of us, and finally all steal away, leaving us touched
at this expression of gratitude for well-earned pay. But alas !
next morning we find them all hard at it, dice in hand.

By permission

TRACKING THL L^

2l8

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

sitting in solemn circle engaged in a speciilative ceremony
which has kept them up all night, and has resulted in trans-
ferring the earnings of the unfortunate speculators into
the pocket-book of the one lucky and exultant winner.

OUR CRAFT

At sight of US the game breaks up and all press forward
to bear our baskets to the river-bank and stow them in a long
frail boat in which our dash of ninety miles is to be made.
The long lithe boards of which this craft is built yield to
pressure like sheets of blotting-paper, — a necessary flexi-
bility, for an ordinary boat could not live in the narrow
rocky channel we are about to enter. We take our places
amidships, four boatmen man the craft : two near us, one in
bow, one in stern. Each carries a long rude oar, and wears
the blue garments of the people. There is something just a
little inquieting in thus trusting ourselves to these strange
men, to this frail boat, and being borne in the strong grasp

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

219

of the swift current toward unknown dangers — jutting rocks
and furious rapids. But off we go ; in an instant the group
of bowing cooHes on the bank fades from our sight, and
rocks and trees and fields and houses begin to dash past us at
terrific speed, while all about us is an angry-swirling sea of
foaming waters, the turbulence of which no photograph can
picture. The boat's sides and bottom heave aind creak as we
rush on, our speed increasing as the river narrows rapidly,
the rocky banks pressing in closer and closer, and the stream
becoming more and more angry in the ever-tightening grip of
the canon walls. The first rapid takes our breath away ; —
down we go sidewise, bearing right upon a huge sharp rock

THE K1KS.I KAl-IU

which, like a mighty spear, stands ready to impale our
fragile craft. Then just as we are about to strike, the
counter current catches us and throws us off, and away we
go toward the other bank— toward more sharp rocks and

220

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

THE ANXIOUS HELMSMAN

Other foaming races. At the
bottom of each rapid we are
stopped suddenly by the whirl-
pool, which checks the boat
with sharp quick jerks, the thin
flat bottom heaving like a car-
pet on a windy day.
For six hours we
continue to shoot
rapid after rapid,
each one more
steep and turbu-
lent, each one
seemingly the last
in which a boat
could live. But
the man at the stern
passes jutting rocks by
The lookout at the

knows well his task, and
a hair's breadth, with utmost confidence,
bow with his long oar gives warning thumps on the boat's
side when dangerous places are at hand. This thumping
serves two ends ; it invokes the gods
and prompts the boatmen to
put forth all their strength.
During this long furious
race the dull thuds of
that oar come thick and
fast as down we go
into one boiling pool
only to recover in time
for another plunge.
Often we ship con-
siderable masses
of green foaming

ROUNDING A ROCK

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

221

water, which with long scoops is rapidly baled out dur-
ing the short intervals of peace between the races. When
in full descent of one of these watery stairways, where the
steps are great boulders and the carpet a rushing mass of
green water and pearly foam, we forget our wringing gar-
ments, our hunger and discomforts, and give ourselves com-
pletely to the enjoyment of this mad ride which every
moment brings us nearer to the coast, to railways, foreign-
ers, and cities. We shall be loath indeed to end the race.

THH NOONDAY HALT

The scenery about us is magnificent. Five minutes after
launching out, the river narrows and suddenly enters a long
deep tortuous canon. A high bridge flies overhead, like a
long spider-web borne on the wings of the wind, and almost
instantly is hidden from view by the next cliff, round which
we dash broadside on, the churning waters whirling us on
without a moment's relaxation. For sixty miles we twist and

222

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

wriggle in the torrent 's grasp, always directed by the uner-
ring eye and hand of our alert and active helmsman. In him
and his fellow-oarsmen our confidence is perfect ; for do they
not know every rock and race by name ?

This swift descent, accomplished in eight hours, gives no
time for their rude surveys, but the long and tedious voyages
up-stream from the coast give ample opportunity for study of

Photograph by Tamaniura

THE BKIDliE OVER THE TENRYLGAWA

JAPAN— THE COUNTRY

223

the river's moods and tricks, for to reach again their town
of Tokimata these sturdy fellows must employ twelve days
of incessant effort, creeping up in the lee of the great rocks,
and towing their boat with long ropes.

I'hotograph hy Otis A. Poole

RUSHING WATBRS

Tugging and tugging in one ceaseless struggle with the
resisting waters they accomplish the ascent, counting their
progress by inches, while in the downward voyage they have
reeled off mile after mile with scarcely any conscious effort.
At last we reach the sea-coast plain. Our speed slackens as
the river, freed from its mountain-bed, broadens into a placid
lake-like .stream ; the mountains gradually recede and soon
become mere outlines in the distance. These final thirty
miles of peaceful drifting are indeed reposeful after the hours

224

JAPAN — THE COUNTRY

TOILERS OF THE DKEP

of continued excitement. At sunset we reach our destina-
tion, and our landing near the railway bridge within sight of
the sea is the closing incident of our never-to-be-forgotten
ramble through the interior provinces of old Japan.

i HI-: END OF THE
UNBEATEN TRACK

THE "MAIKO" OF JAPAN IS A
"GEISHA" IN THE BUD

Trained in all the arts of pleasing, from
earliest girlhood, the prospecti\'e geisha
serves for a term as maiko, dancing, singing,
smiling through her later teens, until at last
thoroughly mis^l^lk'\^ Th'^ ^ i-fes ^* !\i'Kidh her
little life has been consecrated, she blos-
soms out as a finished geisha — the word
geisha signifies "accomplished one." But,
strange to say, she then must lay aside the
bright fantastic dress that she has worn as
maiko to assume the soberer but not less
elegant and costly raiment of the full-
fledged geisha.

JAPAN— THE CITIES

The Cities

THERE is a Japanese adage which tells
. ^ us, that "once seeing is better than a

hundred times telling about. " This applies so aptly to Japan
itself that it were presumptuous to attempt to give in two brief
tclliiig-s any idea of the fascinations of the Land of the Rising
Sun. But with the aid of pictures that reveal a little of the
beauty of the land, it may be that these "tellings " about the
country and the cities of Dai Nippon are at least better than
no tale at all.

228

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Tokyo is the greatest of Japanese cities, the metropolis
a.id the capital of the Empire. More than a million and a
half of people live in this broad, flat city, and yet there are
few wide streets, and the average height of houses is only one

Photograph by Enami

TOKYO

story and a half. Tokyo viewed from an elevation looks like
a cold gray choppy sea, repellent and unpromising, but there
are many charming things beneath that surface of tiled roofs.
The foreign visitor is usually taken to the Imperial Hotel.
Where should American and European travelers lodge if not
in that magnificent establishment, where all the comforts of
the Occident are provided, thanks to a thoughtful government
which is determined that the stranger shall not find the great-
est city of Japan deficient in hotel-accommodations of the
most modern type ? If you seek nothing but comfort and
convenience, by all means go to the Imperial Hotel ; but if,
like me, you want to feci that you are really in Japan, pass
by this splendid pile and follow me, across broad spaces,

JAPAN — THE CITIES

229

skirting the Imperial Castle, the home of the Mikado, toward
a remote and thoroughly Japanese quarter of Tokyo where
there are no reminders of the modern lands across the sea.
I came to Tokyo in company with a gentleman of Yoko-
hama, a traveled Japanese, whom I had met upon a trans-
Pacific steamer. He and his wife had planned a Sunday
holiday in the metropolis, inviting me to meet them on the
evening-train. We arrived at Shimbashi Station an hour after
dark. Thence in jinrikishas we speed away through narrow
streets, dark and silent, then along broad brilliant avenues,
and over dozens of little bridges. This continues for an hour.
Then we cross a great bridge spanning the broad Sumida
River, and for half an hour dash along a smooth road on the
river bank, racing up-stream with the moonbeams on the water.
■ "Where are you taking me.' " I ask my Oriental friend,
and the jinrikishas rattle so I cannot hear the answer. But
presently it dawns upon me where I am. There on the other
shore I see the tower, temple, and pagoda of Asakusa. This,

|p|M|

*^^l

1 yrfn^:i

' "-^ 1

i lit I

"V -

■■■i^^H^^^^Bi^l

Hm^H

THE IMPERIAL HOTEL

230

JAPAN — THE CITIES

therefore, must be Mukojima,
the famous avenue of
cherry-trees, and the
black branches
which cut grace-
ful, gloomy sil-
houettes against
the sky are the
same that we
have often seen
in pictures, glori
ous in their spring-
time dress of pink . Yes,
we are on our way to the
far end of the long Mukojima
highway, at least six miles from town, where we shall find an
inn that is completely and entirely Japanese in structure and
surroundings. It is called the " Yao Matsu, " "The Place of
the Eight Hundred Pine-Trees. " It is the most aristocratic
suburban resort of Tokyo, patronized only by the richer Japan-
ese, unknown to foreigners, unmentioned in "Murray's,"
remote from tramways, far above the terminus of the puffy

tugboats on the
river, — in a word,
secure from all the
influences which
are dispelling the
peaceful atmos-
phere and ruining
the picturesque-
ness of Japan.

Although my
friend had written
in advance for

E SUMIDA RIVRR
Photograph by Tamamura

JAPAN — THE CITIES

231

rooms, he was not certain that we could obtain them, for the
proprietor had repHed to his first letter, saying : ' ' Please do
not bring the foreign gentleman of whom you speak ; we have
no chairs for him to sit on, there are no beds for him to sleep
in ; our chef cannot cook beefsteak ; we cannot make him
comfortable." A second letter to the host assured him that
the foreigner would demand no more than any native guest ;
that he, in fact, preferred to be as Japanese as possible.

THK JAPANESE METROPOLIS

The unfailing courtesy of the people of this land lent an
air of cordiality to our welcome at the Yao Matsu, where we
arrived at half-past nine at night. It proved an ideal place,
this "Place of the Eight Hundred Pine-Trees." A dozen
semidetached dainty dwellings are ranged between the river
and this little lake. We are very tired, very hungry, for
we have not dined. Of course we shed our shoes before
we enter.

232

JAPAN— THE CITIES

IN A JAPANKSK GARDEN

Mr. Sugawa and his wife — for my friends must no longer
be anonymous — are dressed in Japanese kimonos, and I have
not been long arrived before I, too, am just as comfortably,
as coolly clad as they. Tea is served in tiny cups. Supper
is ordered. Geisha are sent for to sing and play and dance
for us, and all the waiting-maids, the nesan, come to take a
peep at the first foreign guest the
inn has ever entertained
but they are disap-
pointed. I do not
appear sufficiently
exotic, for in my
present garb I am
not obtrusively
American. I even
sit in that conven-
tional Japanese attitude

A SUBURBAN HOSTELRY

THE YAO MATSU INN

JAPAN— THE CITIES

235

which, although so try-
ing to the Occidental
knee, is assumed and held with ease and comfort by all the
other people at our supper-party. Mrs. Sugawa would never
think of sitting down in any other way ; her husband, how-
ever, when at home or dining with his friends, might possibly
sit cross-legged for a little while, but never at a formal func-
tion. The Geisha, when in attendance at dinners or big ban-
quets, pass hours sitting thus, playing and singing. As for the
servants, they never come into our presence without dropping
to the floor, touching foreheads to the mats, and then sitting
back upon their heels to receive our august commands.

One nesan on the left was fearful of the flashlight, by
means of which the evening scene was photographed. Would
that I, too, had been fearful of it! The charge exploded,
almost in my right hand, and a few seconds later this little
group of new acquaintances was turned into a helpful band
of sympathetic friends. It was almost worth while to have

236

JAPAN— THE CITIES

one 's hand all but withered by that incan-
descent magnesium powder, for the
accident brought out so much of un-
suspected kindliness and solipitude.
Everybody in the house sat up with
me for three long painful hours,
until a doctor could be brought from
Tokyo. He declares that my right
hand will be useless for a month.
And to think that I have just learned
to eat with chop-sticks and must now
begin all over, and educate the fingers of
the other hand ! But hunger is a splendid
teacher ; the awkward fingers soon pick up the knack ; in
fact, for a one-handed man, Japanese table-customs are
happily adapted. There are no knives and forks demanding
two trained hands, and sometimes superhuman strength ; the
carving — even
the cutting up, is
done before the
food is served.

My friends left
on the following
day, and my first
thought was that
although I was to
stay in Tokyo I
should have to
move to the Im-
peiial Hotel, in
other words, re-
turn to modern
civilization. But
how, on second

BREAKFAST

JAPAN — THE CITIES

237

thought, could a disabled traveler be more advantageously
situated than here in the little inn, which grows prettier
every time it is looked at from a different point of view ?
Here are servants ever ready to put on your shoes, button
your coat, insert your cuff-links ; here is a skilful bathing-
man, to put you through a rousing red-hot bath, and care-
fully keep your bandaged arm from getting wet ; here are
the smiling waiting-maids to serve you with things to eat,
strange dishes, pretty to look at, curious to taste, food which
seems to satisfy but never banishes the appetite for more than
a few moments. Yes, I decide to make the Yao Matsu my
hospital and my headquarters and engage a room amid the
"Eight Hundred Pine-Trees" for the remainder ot my stay.

238

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Photograph by Tamamura

*' KANJO," THE BILL

My room has balconies on either side ; one is quite narrow
and overlooks a sleeping lakelet and the garden ; the other, a .
broad veranda, serving as a corridor, hangs amid the tree-tops

\mt iiirnifMM

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

IN A jAt-rt.NK.^h HultL

A TRANSPLANTED TOKONOMA

JAPAN— THE CITIES

2AI

on (he river side. Through the branches we cat- see the glim-
meiing waters of the wide Sumidagawa, with here and there
a passing junk or sampan sailing cityward. And sometimes
when the skies are kind and clear, there rises in the western
di5.tance a graceful form like an inverted fan, the far-ofi,
ghost-like apparition of the sacred mountain Fuji-San. My
apartment is dainty and immaculate beyond description. Upon
the floor are the thick straw-mats called tatami ; over them
rugs are sometimes spread as a precaution against the clumsy
destructiveness of "civilized" foreigners. Light, sliding
screens covered with translucent paper may at a moment's
notice be so disposed as to form several tiny single rcoms.
One wall of each room is, however, of more
substantial stuff. In it is sunk the recess
called the "tokonoma, " the place to which
all ornaments or decorations are confined. In
the tokonoma we usually find a bronze or porce-
lain vase containing flowers, branches of cherry-
blossoms or of maple-leaves, or . - -
sometimes a dwarfed tree, —
a little tree as old as a
grandfather, and yet no
larger than a child.
Against the wall behind
is hung the kakemono, or
decorated scroll.

The usual impression
produced by a Japanese
room is one of severe sim-
plicity and cleanliness immacu-
late. Our first thought on entering one of
these airy abodes is that house-cleaning has
just been finished, and the furniture
not yet been put back in its place.

Photograph by Tam*mur«

IN FINE WEATHER

242

JAPAN— THE CITIES

The fact that the seemingly bare room contains all necessary
furniture is a difficult one to impress upon the Occidental
housekeeper. Of course, when meals are served, divers small
tables, not more than six inches high, make their appearance,
as do also a few lacquer trays. Then at night the beds, or
''futon,'' fat,' wadded comforters, brought forth from closets
dissimulated in the wall, are spread upon the floor ; and if the

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Photograph by Tamainura

THE MUKOJIMA AVENUE

night be cold, a little stove called a " hibachi " is provided.
This is a wooden box, half filled with ashes in which a bit
of charcoal is smoldering. If the night be very cold, the
traveler may take the stove to bed with him, a perforated
cover being put over it to prevent a conflagration.

The neighboring shore of the Sumida River becomes in
early spring the favorite resort of the beauty-loving citizens of
Tokyo, f hen the cherry-trees, which for eleven long, long

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Dy permission

AN IRIS GARDEN

months have stood like ugly skeletons, their denuded bones
outlined against the sky, put forth quite suddenly a wealth of
rosy blossoms, as if to say, **See what I have been secretly

Photocrnph by Otis A. Poole

:Hl-.KK\-liLi.':.NOM,S

244

JAPAN— THE CITIES

preparing. Is not a fortnight
of this glory better than
months of simple
verdure?" In-
deed, the very
briefness of the
season during
which these
flowers make the
city glad, gives to
the cherry-blossoms
that charm which only
evanescent things possess
Who would not willingly wait a year to see an avenue of
trees all glorious with sunset clouds at mid-day ! Japan
needs no printed calendar ; her people trace the progress
of the seasons in these beauty-festivals that Nature plans
and celebrates. The Japanese know, by the token of these
flowers, that the spring has come, that March is drawing to a

RIS

Photograph hy Otis A. Poole

CHRYSANTHEMUMS

JAPAN — THE CITIES

245

close, or that the month of April has begun. Travelers who
have promised themselves sight of these glories and would in-
sure themselves against a bitter disappointment should reach
Japan about the 20th of March, for an early spring and a
windy day may bring the cherry-blossom season prematurely
to a close ; but as a rule, the middle of the month of April
hnds the trees still decked. The tree puts all its life and
vigor into this one supreme effort in the spring, for it bears
no fruit, and through all the other seasons of the year stands
bare and leafless, awaiting its next annual glorification.
Throughout the land, wherever there are cherry-trees in parks
or lanes or temple gardens, the people gather beneath the rosy
shade of the lovely but ephemeral flowers, and picnic and poet-
ize until the winds scatter the pretty petals and leave nothing
but the remembrance of vanished loveliness. But consolation

WISIAKIA

246

JAPAN— THE CITIES

By Permlssloa

ASAKUSA TKMPLi::

JAPAN — THE CITIES

247

comes in June, for then the iris flowers spread out their rain-
bow hues on the green carpets of the gardens which are made
even gayer by the dainty dresses of the admiring visitors.

A love of the beautiful is innate in almost every native of
Japan. How happy is the nation whose people, even the
humblest, can find a satisfying pleasure in the mere contem-
plation of the things that Nature freely sets before them ! And
then contrast a dainty tea-house, its wistaria trellises enveloped
in purple haze, — with a Teutonic beer-garden, where formal
Christmas-trees in hideous green pots are ranged in rows !

The Japa-
and loving con-
sons with Dame
responds to
When wooed by
this race, she
and astonishing
love for the peo-
of Flowers,
regard the art of

nese are in close
verse at all sea-
Nature and she
their affection,
a gardener of
yields delightful
proofs of her
pie of the Land
The Japanese
our florists as

248

JAPAN — THE CITIES

A MATSURI CAR

barbarous, thinking a flower too
precious a thing to be crowded
with a score of others into a
basket or bouquet, or
massed to form atrocious
' ' floral designs ' ' — an-
chors, broken columns,
or " gates ajar ! " One
flower in one vase is
very Japanese, and
after we have studied
the charming effects at-
tained through simplicity,
we come to look upon our
own methods of floral arrange-
ment as distasteful and wasteful,
in November come the chrysanthemums — the
National Flower of Japan. The chrysanthemums do not
grow along the roadside, but must be sought in the gardens

The

MATSL'Rl SEASON

PhntoKnph tiy Otis A. Poole

JAPAN — THE CITIES

249

lly ptiuiisBi

FOR THK WKE ONBS

ot the expert florists where, in dainty greenhouses of bamboo
and under roofs of delicate oiled paper, they spread their
gorgeous petals to delight the eyes of multitudes who ilock to
these exhibitions of the gardener's art. The finest are to be
seen in the Imperial Gardens at Tokyo,
and fortunately an invitation to the
Mikado's Garden-Party gave me
an opportunity to see this cele-
brated display. On one single
stem I saw no fewer than four
hundred and sixty-five per-
fect blossoms, and where other
stems bore but a single flower,
each was a marvel in size and

coloring.

Fhotoffraph by Otis A. Poole

LOVE Mb, LV\ b M^ UOG *

250

JAPAN— THE CITIES

One of my earliest outings is a visit to Asakusa. There is
always a crowd at Asakusa ; it is the most popular resort of
Tokyo. People come to pray and play. Religion and merri-
ment hold joint sway over this celebrated quarter. There are
a dozen shrines and temples, there are a hundred dozen shops
and shows. But first, like pious Buddhists, let us go to the
great Temple of the Mercy Goddess, Kwannon, clap our
nands before her image, add one metallic drop to the never-
ceasing rain of copper coin that pours from the clouds of
superstition into her treasure troughs, and with our remain-
ing fractions of a cent buy grain and seed from the old woman
in the court to feed the hungry pigeons which dwell beneath
the eaves of the temple. Then, after climbing the ugly

Fbolognph by Oils A. Poole

THE LANTERN-MAKER

JAPAN— THE CITIES

251

twelve-story tower, we return to the city streets, to find a
festival, or " malsuri," in progress. These matsuri seem
to break out on the slightest provocation. An entire quarter
will suddenly, for no obvious reason, "shut up shop" and

By Permitsion

STREET-CARS NEAR UVENO

give itself over to rejoicings and enjoyment. A gigantic car
of several stories is drawn through the streets attended by
the happy crowds. Upon the higher platforms are mummers
and musicians ; and on top of all an effigy of some old warrior
or hero. Just what the fuss is all about the stranger never
knows. We are content to take the celebration as a pictur-
esque event, and to let its mythical, religious, or historical
meaning remain a mystery. Child life is never seen to such
advantage as during these days of popular jubilation. The
quaintest, cutest little types of Japaninity parade the streets
in festival attire. A whole lecture might be given on the
"Wee Ones of Japan," and should it ever be my privilege
to come again to this land of happy childhood, I promise you

252

JAPAN — THE CITIES

that I shall not fail to study this delightful subject. The
stranger always has ample warning that a matsuri is coming.
Two or three days before the arrival of the happy date the
streets of all the quarter blossom out with paper lanterns,

IN UYKNO fAKK

uniform in shape and in design according to the special fete-
day to be celebrated. At night the scene is one of fairy-
land. Interminable double rows of glowing lanterns stretch
away in all directions. In any other land these lanterns
would be made by machinery in gigantic factories ; in Japan
they are made by hand in tiny studios, for lantern-making is
not an industry, it is an art. This is the secret of the charm
of "things Japanese." The factories are studios, the in-
dustries are arts, and the workmen, almost without excep-
tion, artists. Many of my photographic slides were colored
by a little man whose daily pay would not equal that of the
"artist " who whitewashes our fences. The ability of skilled,
artistic, Japanese labor to under-live even the common toilers

JAPAN— THE CITIES

253

of the West is the most threatening feature of Japanese com-
petition in the markets of the world. It is, however, devoutly
to be wished that industrial and commercial progress shall not
mean artistic degeneration, and the annihilation of Japafi's
innate good taste. It gives us a shock every time we meet a
street-car here in Tokyo ; they are abominably out of place,
exasperatingly deliberate, usually overcrowded, and astonish-
ingly cheap. It is almost a day's journey to cross the big
metropolis in one of those slow cars. The picturesque,
speedy, and e.xclusive rikisha is comparatively expensive, but
let us hope that it will successfully resist its rival, for a Japa-
nese city without it would be indeed a sorry place.

But the beauties of Uyeno Park, especially in springtime,
make amends for the ugly banality of modern means of reach-
ing it. Once within the limits of the park, we find ourselves
again in old Japan. Uyeno, like Asakusa, is a place of prayer
and picnics. Crowds throng into the temple courts, and the

254

JAPAN— THE CITIES

THE MAGYASU
'BA-HOUSK. TOKYO

tramp of many feet shod with
wooden sandals when falHng
on the granite paths makes
a strange music, a sound
peculiar to Japan. It
may be likened to the
sound that would be
made by a large or-
chestra composed en-
tirely of xylophones.
The Japanese are a na-
tion of pic-
nickers; but
what
people
would not go

in for frequent picnics, given these same
inducements — a perpetual round of
floral festivals .' The blossoming of the
cherry-tree, the advent of the iris, the
drooping of the wistaria, — all these
events call out this beauty-loving popu-
lation to gardens, parks, or favorite tea-
houses, famous for some special flower.
But there is one perennial attraction
to every tea-house in Japan, that of the
pretty "Geisha," about whom so
much has been said, and about
whom so Httle is accurately known
In that dainty musical comedy,
called "The Geisha," so well
presented by the late Augustin
Daly's Company, we had a pict-
ure of tea-house life as it appears

■"^

FhotoKraph by Nagasaki

By ptrulssioa

GEISHA

JAPAN — THE CITIES

257

to many travelers. The heroine, a pretty dancing-girl, flirts
with the foreign visitors, attracting custom to the chaya, of
which she is the bright, particular star ; but her smiles and
winks dispensed to patrons mean no more than do the smiles
and winks that come to us across the footlights. It is all act-
ing, made more difficult because there are no footlights to
help out the artist, and no curtain to ring down when her

SHIMBASIII GKISHA

trying scene is done. The art of being a geisha is the art of
being perpetually and convincingly amiable. Who will deny
that this is the most difficult of all the arts .i* Yet trained
to it from childhood the geisha of Japan succeed so well that
their life seems one of unaffected happy, girlish gaiety. But be-
hind it all there are long hours of hard work at the ' ' samisen, ' '
with singing teachers, with the costumer and dancing-master.

258

JAPAN — THE CITIES

The geisha are not attached to the staff of the tea-
house, but are sent for when ordered by the guests for
whom they are to dance and sing. The younger geisha
are doll-like children, for most of those who dance are
children from twelve to fifteen years of age ; those who
play the musical accompaniments are older, but not over
nineteen at the most. The remuneration they receive is
indeed very small.

MONKEYS

It may be that these little creatures are not beautiful
according to our western standards, but no one can deny that
they possess a strange, exotic charm ; they seem unreal, im-
possible, mysterious. They are one moment like playful,
romping children, thoughtless and wild, the next like women,
strangely youthful, strangely dignified, as if conscious of their
charm. Or, again, at some stately banquet, they may appear-
impassive as priestesses, pour-
ing sake from graceful por-
celain bottles as if they
were performing some
religious rite. It has
been said that there is
no expression in thi
faces of the Japa-
nese. "They are

GREETING

JAPAN— THE CITIES

259

like monkeys, " says one critic. I beg to differ
with him. Here are monkeys, the most
famous in Japan, carved on a sacred
structure by a classic sculptor of three
hundred years ago. The group is meant
to teach the pious lesson that we should
neither speak, hear, nor see any evil.
Let us ask a clever little geisha to imi-
tate as closely as she can the e.xpressions
and the poses of these tricentenarian
simians. First the middle one, who is sup-
posed to speak no evil. Not difficult this ;
for there are no
Japanese, no

no words that soil
must learn the
speare or of Mo-
can speak evil.
stops the ears
hear no evil ;
tion. Lafcadio
he lived more
Japan without
gry word pro-

nessing a real quarrel. And finally, that she
may sec no evil, let her hide her almond
eyes behind her chubby fingers.

True there is evil to be seen in every
land, and in Japan the evil most con-
spicuous is that which we champions
of Western civilization have ourselves
introduced. But to return to our
monkeys — if these be monkeys, we
might all beg to be put in the cage !

evil words in
words profane,
the lips. She
speech of Shake-
li^re, before she
And n o w she
that she may
needless precau-
Hearn says that
than a year in
hearing an an-
nounced, or wit-

26o

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Geisha are, in fact, the most important part of a Japanese
feast. Without geisha no entertainment in good society
could possibly be given with success. They are not wait-
resses, however ; they are artists, proficient in the art of
entertaining and always clever, pretty, and well-gowned.
True they do serve both food and sak^ ; but this they do
artistically, not as servants, but with the grace and gracious-
ness of hostesses. A gentleman giving a dinner to his

THE TOKYO OF TO-DAY

friends would never dream of permitting his wife to do
the honors. She probably would not be seen. A group of
geisha would be engaged to furnish that pervading feminine
charm without which a feast is nothing. The geisha are
expected to enliven conversation, amuse the guests with
witty sayings and bright stories, delight them with pretty
mannerisms, all this time keeping the sak^ cups well filled.
Sake, which is distilled from rice, is usually served warm in

GEISHA TEACHING FOREIGNERS TO UANCE

JAPAN — THE CITIES

263

tiny porcelain bowls, holding about four thimblefuls. Though
it is but mildly alcoholic, its effects must be most agreeable,
according lo a native drinking song which may be translated
somewhat as follows:

" When you drink sak^,
You feel like the springtime.
And the loud cries
Of impatient creditors
On the outside,
Sound in your ears
Like the voices of nightingales
Singing most sweetly."

u,,'r.i|ih by Otis A. Poole

A SHOP-FRONT

Between the courses of the dinner or at the conclusion
the geisha perform descriptive dances, strangely graceful, and
ranging from slow and solemn, almost religious movements,
to indescribable iiutterings, like those of colored butterflies.

264

JAPAN— THE CITIES

A BAMBOO WAI.
Photograph by Otis A. Poule

These pantomimic dances each tell
some pretty story, poetic or his-
toric. The plot, however, is
difficult to grasp, nor is our
comprehension facilitated
by the explanations of
our guide, who actually
thought that he had elu-
cidated everything with
the following words :
"Gentlemen, I will ex-
plain him " (" him, ' ' mean-
ing, of course, the plot).
' Long time ago Daimio he
come to beach with his ladies.
He think he saw a poem, so she went
to his home and destroy his enemy with the poem and the
general — he was a very bad man. " And then we said, "Ah,
yes ; how interesting ! " Of course the geisha play the inevit-
able, distressing samisen, and sing their little songs. This
is distinctly less agreeable, for such squeaks and squeals as
issue from their pretty lips in the name of heaven-sent harmony
are enough to break the spell that their soft gentle tones,
employed in conversation, have cast about our spirits. Some
one has written apropos of this, "It is quite fortunate that
the musical art is not more generally practiced in Japan."
And to this the average, uncomprehending Westerner must
add, "Amen!" For although these Oriental maidens may
fascinate the Western eye, they can do nothing but exasper-
ate the Western ear when they burst into song. Like good
little children, they should be seen and not heard.

Let us, then, go out into the streets where we may see
them by the score. How may we best describe these busy
streets ? They are so strange, so changing, so bizarre. It

A STUDV IN GEISHA ATTITUDES

JAPAN— THE CITIES

267

seems as if the population had nothing to do but wander
up and down to add life and color to these Oriental thorough-
fares. True, the effect of this Eastern picture is now and
then marred by the passing of a mousm^, bearing a hideous
modern parasol imported from the West, or by the fleeting
presence of some Oriental gentleman whose artistic costume
is crowned by a derby hat of antiquated form. These are,
however, insignificant defects. The picture in the ensemble
is delightful, and we never tire of the pretty sights that greet
us as we dash in rikishas through these crowded streets, our

ENTRANCE TO THK MlKADu's I'AI.ACK

runners pushing loiterers aside, because they think that for-
eign passengers are always in a hurry. There are few streets,
even in the larger cities, that bear the impress of foreign
architectural teaching, although here and there we find an
ugly building in the modern style ; and in these streets there
is comparatively little stir and noise, no genuinely heavy
traffic, no rumbling trucks, no feverish haste. Instead of
these we find the swift and almost noiseless flight of rikishas,
at times a gentle flutter of excitement, perhaps a little polite
crowding, and over all a sound like that of laughter, broken

208

JAPAN— THE CITIES

now and then by cheerful cries. Even a funeral should not
be a sad spectacle. The exquisite courtesy of the Japanese
teaches them that it is rude and selfish to show a sad face to
the world. They are taught to bear grief with a smiling face.
We are told of the foreigner who was shocked by what
seemed to him the heartlessness of the family nurse, who
announced to him the death of her husband with a low laugh
and a smiling face. In reality that laugh betokened the most
thoughtful consideration for the master. To have appeared
before the master with an unpleasant tear-stained face, to
have addressed him with the tones of woe, would have been
impolite. The laugh that accompanies the announcement
of sad news has been translated into words by Mr. Hearn.
It signifies, "This you might honorably think to be an
unhappy event. Pray do not suffer Your Superiority to feel
concerned about so inferior a matter, and pardon the neces-
sity which causes us to outrage politeness by speaking about
such an affair at all. ' ' The Japanese speak of the angry

EXQUISITE CARPENTRY
Photograph by Otis A. Poole

JAPAN— THE CITIES

269

ONE OF THE MOATS
Photograph by Otis A, Pi

faces of the foreigner, and
ask why it is that we so
seldom smile. Chil-
dren in the remoter
provinces always
cry out in terror
when they see for
the first time the
features of a Eu-
ropean. In the
early days the
strong-featured fac-
es of the foreigners
were likened to the
faces of demons. It
must be confessed that Oc-
cidental physiognomy lacks the
reposeful calmness so characteristic of the Orient.

The home of Japanese Majesty is an unseen palace hidden
in the depths of a vast, silent, almost impenetrable park ; for
around it rise three series of cyclopean walls crowned with
castle-like turrets and protected by broad deep moats.
Though situated in the very center of
Japan's greatest city, this imperial
abode is as silent as the grave ;
for so thick are the ramparts
and so broad the moats that
none of the turmoil of the
outer world may penetrate
to the inner gardens where
the Emperor, surrounded by
his court, dwells in a semi-
religious seclusion. Although
formerly invisible to his people, the

Photograph by Otis A, Poole

LKAKNlNt.. WhSThRN WAYS

270 JAPAN — THE CITIES

Emperor now frequently shows himself in public. At the
annual garden-party, held in the grounds of another and less
sacred palace, in November, 1892, I had the honor of meet-
ing face to face the Mikado, Mutsu Hito, the Empress, and
some thirty of the ladies of the court. Of course no pictures
of the scene were in any way obtainable. Fortunately so,
perhaps, for alas ! all who come to the state-functions must
obey the imperial mandate and appear in modern European
dress. Would that the Japanese of high degree could see
themselves as others see them at the garden-party. The
imperial court has lost much in dignity by abandoning the
artistic dress of old Japan in favor of the hideous habiliments
of Western civilization. The little Em-
press of Japan, O Haru, a woman of the
most refined, aristocratic type,
looked sadly ill at ease in her
gown fresh from Paris. She
and the dainty ladies of the
court seemed to have laid aside
their grace and poise together
with their fine old robes of state,
r « The Empress shook the hands

', of those who were presented

to her, like a timid school-girl ;
and the bows of the court ladies,
so graceful when performed in
native costume, are rendered
comic when every forward in-
clination of the body is attended
by the skyward bobbing of an
antiquated bustle. Nor can the
I men, any more than the women

^gi^ of Japan, wear gracefully the

^^^ costumes of the West. Even

GOWNED IN THE FASHION

JAPAN — THE CITIES

271

the Emperor, arrayed in a military uniform like those affected
by European monarchs, seemed to lack, because of certain
inherited mannerisms, that peculiar quality which we are
pleased to call "a kingly bearing." His innate dignity.

Photograph by Iinami

IN SHIBA'S SHADE

however, would have impressed us had he appeared in the
superb Japanese robes of state like those worn by his imperial
ancestors and even by himself before the Restoration. The
coats of many of the guests revealed curious conceptions
of foreign fashions. Nor was their headgear less remarkable.
The relative sizes of hat and head had apparently never been
taken into consideration. In many cases the hats were of
such generous proportions that they were prevented from
settling to the wearer's shoulders, and thus eclipsing his
countenance, only by resting on his diplomatic ears. Fortu-
nately this craze for foreign dress, that at one time threatened

272

JAPAN— THE CITIES

to pervade all classes, is now confined to the small circle of
the " upper ten. " At court the wearing of it is obligatory,
but the people have realized that the adoption of European
dress without the adoption of European manners is incon-
gruous and silly. The good sense of the mousmd of Japan
prompts her to retain her graceful native dress that gives her
that indefinable charm to which not only famous poets but
also mere travelers have alike been subject. "But the Japa-
nese girl turns in her toes," some may say. What if she
does .'' She does it gracefully, and they are very pretty toes,
because they have not been deformed by leather shoes.
"Trilby " could never have become famous in Japan merely
because her feet were natural in shape. The Japanese girl,
when she bows, bends forward from the waist, at the same
time gliding her hands downward to her knees, then straight-
ens up again. This movement, awkward when performed by
foreigners, is, when done by those who know its secret, as
graceful as the prettiest of Occidental curtsies. Her taste

REGIMENTS OF TORO
Photograph by Kimbei

JAPAN — THE CITIES

273

liVoNK LANTERNS

in matters of raiment is usually exquisite and almost invari-
ably good. Bad taste is hardly ever manifested by the Japa-
nese save when they affect the things that are not Japanese.
But to resume our rambles in the capital. We make our
way to the sacred park of Shiba, the burial-place of the last
of the Shoguns, the last of those great generals of the Toku-
gawa family who previous to 1868 dwelt in the palace of
Tokyo and there held temporal sway, while the reigning
Mikado lived the life of a demigod in inglorious tranquillity,
in far away Kyoto. The one feature of this sacred park most
vividly recalled is the great army of tall, mysterious stone
lanterns — "/oro, " as they are called. Thousands and
thousands of them stand in close ranks about the graveled
courts. To us they seem like a host of ancient warriors
waiting to attend some solemn ceremony in honor of their
departed Prince ; and this simile is not inapt. For eath of
these lanterns was erected here by some great daimio, or

274

JAPAN — THE CITIES

noble, owing feudal service to the Tokugawas. And thus
these immobile battalions truly represent the military strength
of the old warrior whose funeral court they guard. The
tombs of these Tokugawa Princes are surrounded by shrines
and temples that are among the most magnificent in all
Japan. The Japanese delight in honoring their military
chiefs as gods, and all this deification and worship of old
heroes is only the survival of that admirable spirit of loyalty
to lords and princes that was the key-note of the feudal life.
This land has had a noble and chivalrous past, as is proved
by many tales of bravery and daring, and of these tales of
chivalry none is more popular than the famous story of ' ' The
Forty-seven Ronin." Almost two hundred years ago a cer-
tain Kotsuke, a cowardly favorite of the Shogun, after insult-
ing the noble Prince Ako, not only refused him satisfaction,
but, to avoid a duel, obtained by perfidy from the Shogun a
condemnation of Prince Ako and the seizure of his lands and

castles. Ako, obedient to the

Shogun 's sentence,
committed suicide
bv hara kiri.

GATE AND PAGODA OF SHIBA

JAPAN— THE CITIES

275

At this, the retainers of the martyred prince declared them-
selves " Ronin " or "masterless men," and swore to avenge
Prince Ako's death. But the crafty Kotsukd guarded well
his person. The Ronin were compelled to bide their time.
To allay suspicion they feigned indifference, and, aban-
doning wives and children, pretended to lead dissolute and
careless lives. But all this time they were perfecting plans
of vengeance, and for many years in profoundest secrecy

I'hoto^raph by EnamI

GRAVES OF THE RONIN

they awaited the day of reckoning. At last the day of
reckoning arrived. Kotsuk^ becoming careless from long
security, reduced his guard, and one winter night the band of
Ronin broke into his palace, slew his retainers and, capturing
their cowardly enemy alive, demanded that he should end his
life by suicide, as their master had been forced to do. But
he had not the courage to do the bidding of the avengers,
who therefore severed his head from his body, and laid it
some hours later as an offering on Prince Ako's tomb.

276

JAPAN— THE CITIES

To-day that grave is surrounded by forty-seven other
graves. For, the vendetta accomplished, the Ronin gave
themselves up to justice. Their deed was lauded to the skies ;
but feudal law required that they should die. To them, how-
ever, was granted the privilege of that death, dear to the
chivalric Samurai, the "happy dispatch, " or hara kiri. Thus
the forty-seven Ronin with their own daggers stoically dis-
emboweled themselves, and falling forward in their own life-
blood, died with their master 's name upon their lips.

And now after two centuries have passed, this burial
court is still a place of pilgrimage. Here, as in a temple,
rise clouds of incense offered up before the tombs by a never-
ending procession of visitors, who come from far and near to
pay their tribute to the loyalty and courage of these forty-
seven men who died because their master's name and honor
were to them the most sacred things on earth.

This story in its dramatic form is one of the most popular
of the native dramas, and is repeated often at the Japanese
play-houses. It is as familiar to the Japanese theater-goers
as ' ' Hamlet " is to us. It was my privilege to see it admi-
rably presented by the famous
Danjiro, the greatest actor
of Japan, an artist who
ranks among the great
dramatic geniuses of
modern times. Al-
though the stage-
traditions and cus-
toms of the Japa-
nese differ widely
from our own , a Japa-
nese drama may be
comprehended and en-
joyed even by one who

GRAVESTONES

JAPAN— THE CITIES

277

flutto^iaplk by ()>;dwa

HARA KIRI

does not know the language of the players. Many scenes are
done almost entirely in pantomime with an accompaniment of
music and recitative. The stage-settings and the costumes are
magnificent ; and realism is carried far beyond anything with
which we are familiar. Take, for example, the suicide of
good Prince Ako ; we are not spared a single phase of his
death-agony. Like the brave Samurai he is. Prince Ako, con-
demned by his sovereign, dies preferably by his own hand.
In old Japan hara kiri was the only honorable death for
a man in disgrace. The victim, dressed always in white,
attended by his second, and in the presence of the appointed
witnesses, grasps a small dirk, and at a signal thrusts it into
his body. Then with the knife in his vitals he must deliver
his last messages to his friend and second, and then complete
his work with a quick side-movement of the blade, thus dis-
emboweling himself. Should he lack strength or courage for
this final effort, it is the duty of his second to decapitate him

278

JAPAN — THE CITIES

instantaneously with a long curved sword. To learn to per-
form gracefully both of these strokes was formerly a part of
every noble's education, and boys were early exercised in the
approved method of holding and thrusting the self-destroying
dirk and of swinging the executionary sword.

A IHKATER

The scenes of the play are changed with great rapidity.
When an act is finished, the curtain is not drawn, but the
stage-setting and the actors in their final poses are mechan-
ically whirled out of sight. The entire stage revolves like a
gigantic turn-table, and the new scene that has been pre-
pared on the rear half of the platform is swung around and
presented to the audience. The actors who are to take part
in it are already in position to begin their business. Those
who make their entrances later in the scene do not appear
from the wings, but come stalking in from the back of the

JAPAN — THE CITIES

279

parquet circle down a narrow elevated aisle ; sometimes
making long speeches before they reach the stage.

There are, of course, no chairs or seats of any kind in the
auditorium. The parquet is merely a sloping floor divided
into little trays or boxes of about four square feet by railings
about eight inches high. For comfort's sake I came to the
matinee in native costume. My faithful servitor, Tsuni
Horiuchi, had secured one of those little trays, and in it we
wedged ourselves. Throughout two acts I sat successfully in
Japanese fashion, my legs shut up beneath me. During the

By pcnnission A STRKET OK SHOWS

third act, however, my Occidental muscles unused to this
Oriental stretching begin to warn me that the end is near.
I whisper to my boy that I must straighten out my legs or
die; but hozv? — that is the question. There is no room.
" I will buy room for your honorable feet, " he answers ; and

28o

JAPAN— THE CITIES

rushing out he returns with tickets for the vacant box in front
of us. Then gently unfolding my stiffened members, he draws
my feet carefully under the intervening rail and deposes them,
toes pointing skyward, in the middle of that adjoining box.

^hutugraph by Enami

A WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

We boldly meet the amused smiles of the spectators, and like
them, proceed to order tea and sak6, and also soups and
omelettes, — for the play lasts from early morning until dark,
and everybody is expacted to have one or more meals brought
in from the tea-houses which serve also as ticket agencies.
Leaving the theater, we go in search of more exciting
entertainment at the wrestling-pavilion. A pair of brawny
braves are about to test their powers before an admiring
public. What boxing is to the Anglo-Saxon, and fencing to
the Frenchman, such is wrestling to the Japanese. The

JAPAN— THE CITIES

281

wrestlers are a class apart, recruited from among the big men
of the land where little people are the rule. Fat, rather than
muscular in appearance, they depend more on sheer brute-
force and weight than on agility and skill, the object being to
tumble one 's opponent out of the ring as expeditiously as pos-
sible. But our interest in this rude sport soon flags, and we
depart to prepare for our journey from Tokyo to the western
Capital, Kyoto, three hundred miles away. We shall, how-
ever, travel leisurely and with many lingerings.

The country through which we are now to make our way
is one of the greenest countries in the world. In every
traveler 's note-book the word ' ' green ' ' is repeated time and
again on every page. At certain seasons of the year Japan,
from end to end, is one long, beautiful, entrancing symphony
in green. It is the Emerald Isle of the Orient, — an Emerald
Isle without potatoes, famine, shillalahs, or oppression, for in
Japan potatoes are an unknown quan-
tity, famine is happily a stranger, and
the people, while eminently coura-
geous, are not pugnacious, nor have
they ever had cause to resist op-
pression. Let me quote a few
words from one
of the books
of Lafcadio

Hearn, than whom no foreigner knows
more about Japan or more truly un- .
derstands the nature of the Japan-
ese. It is not too much to say
that those who have never read
his books do not and cannot know
the real Japan. He writes :
"I have been fourteen
months in a certain

By permission

A WRESTLKR

282

JAPAN — THE CITIES

province, and I have not yet heard voices raised in anger or
witnessed a quarrel ; never have I seen one man strike another,
or a woman bulhed, or a child slapped. Indeed, I have never
seen any real roughness anywhere that I have been in Japan,
except at the open ports where the poorer classes seem, through
contact with Europeans, to lose their natural politeness, — their
native morals, — even their capacity for simple happiness."

Photograph by- Otis A. Pool

*' WHERE ALL MOVEMENT IS SLOW AND SOFT'

And this is literally true. Again he speaks of "The supremely
pleasurable impression produced by the singular gentleness of
popular scrutiny. ' ' He says : ' ' Everybody looks at you curi-
ously, but there is never anything disagreeable, much less hos-
tile, in the gaze. Most commonly it is accompanied by a smile
or half smile, and the ultimate consequence of all these kindly
curious looks is that the stranger finds himself thinking of fairy-
land. Hackneyed to the degree of provocation this statement

JAPAN— THE CITIES

285

no doubt is. Everybody describing his first Japanese day talks
of the land as ' Fairy-land ' and of its people as ' Fairy-
folk ' ; yet there is a natural reason for this unanimity in the
choice of terms to describe what is almost impossible to
describe more accurately. To find one's self suddenly in a
world where everything is upon a smaller and daintier scale
than with us, — a world of lesser and seemingly kindlier beings,
all smiling at you as if to wish you well ; a world where all

I'hotngr.iph by (.itis A. Foole

movement is slow and soft and voices are hushed ; a world
where land, life, and sky are unlike what one has known else-
where— this is surely the realization, for imaginations nourished
with English folk-lore, of the old dream of a world of elves."
Again, he asks, and with good cause, "Where are the out-
ward, material signs of that immense new force that Japan
has been showing both in productivity and in war ? Nowhere.
The land remains what it was before. Its face has scarcely
been modified by all the changes of the present period. The

286

JAPAN— THE CITIES

miniature railways and telegraph-poles, the bridges and tun-
nels, might almost escape notice in the ancient green of the
landscapes. You might journey two hundred miles through
the interior, looking in vain for large manifestations of the
new civilization. A Japanese city is still what it was centu-
ries ago — little more than a wilderness of wooden sheds, pict-
uresque, indeed, as paper lanterns are, but scarcely less frail. "
A visit to the site of Kamakura will show us that this
is true, for Kamakura, once the greatest city of Japan, has
almost vanished from the land. During the comparatively

THE KAMAKURA BUDDHA FROM THE RICE-FIELDS

brief period of her written history, Japan has had more than
sixty capitals, of which the greater number have completely
disappeared. Kamakura is only one of those threescore of
imperial cities that have passed into oblivion. But to the
former greatness of the place one thing bears enduring testi-
mony,— it is the Dai Butsu, a gigantic bronze image of
Gautama Buddha, the most impressive, awe-inspiring monu-
ment in all Japan, nay, more — in all the Orient. We are told
that it is fifty feet in height, the face from ear to ear is seven-
teen, an eye, four feet across, ajid that within the image is a

i'iiulri^r.iph oy i'.nanil

GAUTAMA BUDDHA

JAPAN— THE CITIES

289

chamber where more than a hundred men may kneel in
prayer. But all these details add nothing to our admiration
for this great medieval work. Its very presence inspires awe
and reverence. It stands the symbol of a great religion, and
is to educated Buddhists in no sense an idol. Sadly at vari-
ance with the grand teachings of Buddhism are many of the
practices and superstitions which now dim the "Light of Asia. "
But just as the lotus-flower rises from the slime in purity and

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

beauty, so do the great, pure thoughts of Buddha stand forth
from the mists of superstition in which the cult has long been
shrouded. Why the lotus has become the symbolic flower of
the Buddhist faith has been told us in graceful words in the
English composition of a Japanese school-boy who writes :

" Though growing in the foulest slime, the flower remains pure
and undefiled.

" And the soul of him who remains ever pure in tlie midst of tempta-
tion is likened unto the lotus.

290

JAPAN— THE CITIES

"Therefore is the lotus carved or painted upon the furniture of
temples ; therefore also does it appear in all the representations
of our Lord Buddha.

" In paradise the blessed shall sit at ease enthroned upon the cups
of golden lotus-flowers."

The Uai Butsu has sat here in silent contemplation for
more than seven centuries. Once it stood in the heart of a
great city; now it looks out upon the abandoned site of Kama-
kura, the vanished capital. Almost a million people once
dwelt round about it ; what were the busy streets of long ago
are now become grassy lanes. A mere village bears the proud
title of Kamakura, — thatched huts and rice-fields have suc-
ceeded the imperial palaces and gardens, — the Japanese

Photograph by Kimbei

PROFILE OF THE DAI BUTSU

JAPAN— THE CITIES

291

metropolis of seven hundred years ago,
the home of the old Emperors, has
disappeared. All, save the tem-
ples and this mighty figure,
has been destroyed by time
and war and flood and fire.
Four centuries ago the
Buddha sat within a gor-
geous temple. In 1494 a
tidal-wave rushed inland
from the neighboring bay,
swept away the sheltering
temple*, and with the debris of
an engulfed city bore it out to
sea. But neither this catastrophe
nor the innumerable wars and confla-
grations that have raged round this imperishable form have
disturbed the eternal serenity of the face so divinely calm, nor
caused a quiver of the half-closed lids beneath which sleep great
eyes of gold. In these bronze features there is a something
supernatural that by its mystery both fascinates and awes us.
As I stood for the first time in this great presence, I thought
to comprehend, though dimly, the calm that comes of

THE FACE or
THE GREAT BUDDHA

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

BUDDHA S NEIGHBORS

292

JAPAN— THE CITIES

SAILS ON THE SEA

self-annihilation and perfected knowledge, the calm that is
reflected in the face of the Dai Butsu. The slow succession of
the centuries and the swift march of events have left no trace

AT HNOSHIMA

JAPAN— THE CITIES

293

upon this changeless countenance. Nay, more, — those eyes
of the Great Buddha, though on a level with the treetops,
were not even raised to look out seaward upon that strange
fleet, called "the black ships," which half a century ago
approached this land under the guidance of our famous Perry.
Yet well might the Buddha have taken heed of them,
for they were bringing to Japan undreamed-of changes, and a
future full of progress and of turmoil. Their coming was the

THK WAV TO ENOSHIMA

signal that Japan's period of peace and isolation was draw-
ing to a close. Our ships brought to the Japanese a thou-
sand new responsibilities, which were accepted at first with
reluctance, then with willingness ; and now for the first time
in the history of nations a dark-skinned people has assumed
and is bearing worthily the "white man's burden."

Continuing our journey we visit briefly the lovely island of
Enoshima with its high-perched yadoyas and temples and
then travel slowly westward along the old Tokaido, or

294

JAPAN— THE CITIES

FROM AN INN AT ENOSHIMA

!"'iflHH

iii^&.

JAPAN— THE CITIES

295

Photuyrapli by Ulis A. Poole

Pin, KIMS

"Highway of the Eastern Sea." This was once the most
frequented route between the eastern and the western capi-
tals, and throughout its entire
course of three hundred mi
it was paralleled by a con-
tinuous series of village
of shops and inns and
lodging-places for the
retinues of traveling
princes. To-da}
the daimio, or no-
bles, are whirled
from Tokyo to Kyo-
to in modern rail-
way-cars, and the
Tokaido, once so bril-
liant and so full of life,

Photograph by Otis A. Poole

A PILGRIM'S WATERPKOOF

296

JAPAN— THE CITIES

deserted save by the poorest peasants and the most eccentric
travelers. The highway leads us soon into the Hakond
Mountains, to Miyanoshita, the favorite sunimering-place of
foreigners and natives. But we are not concerned with the

luxurious semi-European hotels ; delightful as they are, they
are not Japanese. Instead of idling on their broad verandas,
we go forth on foot to see what we may see. And every-
where we see the homes of industry and honest toil, sur-
rounded by fields minutely cultivated. The farmers' houses
have heavy roofs of thatch with little strips of growing
verdure on the ridges. Beneath the eaves hang golden
fringes made of yellowing ears of corn.

The interiors are as clean, as chastely simple, as in the
houses of the rich. Housekeeping must be indeed a pleasure
to the women in Japan, for there is no bric-a-brac to break,

JAPAN— THE CITIES

297

no untidy "tidies " to get mussed, no fur-
niture to move, nothing but mats of
straw to sweep and sliding screens
on which to paste occasionally a
sheet of fresh white paper. So
little housework is there to be
done that the farmers' wives
devote themselves to agricul-
tural toil, and we look with
admiration on the sturdy
peasant women who labor
all day in the open fields.
Some of them are threshing
rice, one handful at a time, by
drawing it across a sort of metal
comb. And thinking of our pat
ent threshers, we marvel at this

MIRESHING

Photographs by Otis A. Poole

298

JAPAN— THE CITIES

people so rich in patience, so poor in all things else. Yet I
doubt if there be a land where content dwells more intimately
among the poorer classes than here in the "Land of Rice-
Ears. ' ' And the courtesy of even the humblest of the

ROADSIDE COURTESIES

peasants gives us a feeling of absolute security amid these
gentle, happy-humored people. In these valleys, tea-houses,
or roadside resting-places, are as numerous as elsewhere in
Japan. Never are we suffered to approach without a wel-
come. The hostess always bustles out and greets us with
low bows, and as she bows, she makes a curious hissing
sound by drawing in her breath through her closed teeth.
At first it is a little disconcerting to be greeted everywhere by
this sound like that of escaping steam, but it is always so ;
whenever we approach an inn some one apparently turns on
the human radiators which continue to sizzle until long after

JAPAN — THE CITIES

299

we have been comfortably installed. And these oft-repeated
sniffs are not a sign of influenza ; they are an outward and
audible sign of an inward and healthy politeness. They
mean that we are very welcome. I always tried to return
these greetings with interest and soon became proficient in
the back-breaking bow of Dai Nippon and could hold my
own with any of them in a hissing contest. But not every-
where are we greeted with smiles, as is proved by the picture

Photograph by Eiumi

300

JAPAN — THE CITIES

of the glaring stone god that greeted
us as we approached another vil
lage. That unhappy deity sits
at the roadside, his signifi-
cance a mystery. But
after a careful study of
his expression and atti-
tude of anguish, and the
suggestive position of his
hands, tightly clasped
over his stomach, we de-
cide that he can be none
other than the "God of

THE GOD OF
UNRIPE FRUIT*'

Unripe Fruit, " —
in fact, a sort of
Buddhist incar-
nation of the late
lamented "John-
ny Jones " or
"Sister Sue "who
ate the "peach of
emerald hue that
grew," in the
fancy of Eugene
Field. But un-
abashed by the
forbidding aspect
of these rustic

A TE.MPLE STAIRWAY

JAPAN — THE CITIES

301

VOTIVK SANDALS

gods, I continued
to look after my
spiritual welfare
by attending
church on every
possible occasion.
Nor is salvation
lightly to be ob-
tained in Japan.
A picture of
the front steps of
one of the tem-
ples will convince
you that frequent
church-going in this region is more or less fatiguing ; still, we
religiously mount every tier of steps to do homage, not to
the local deity, but to the Goddess of the Picturesque who
sits enshrined alike in Shinto and in Buddhist temples. And
our ardor in her service is well recompensed, for never do we
climb in vain, invariably finding something worth the labor.
Much that is grotesque to foreigners is mingled with that
which is naive and charming.
For instance, we discover
a votive-offering that
is nothing less than
a pair of Japa-
nese shoes or
waraji, three
feet long,
made of heavy
metal. We
are told that
these enormous
shoes were the

A NEW USB FOR NATIVK SANDALS

302

JAPAN— THE CITIES

offering of an ambitious jinrikisha runner who desired to excel
in speed and endurance all other kurumayas as signally as
these shoes excel in size and weight all the waraji of Japan.

k. SPECIAL KAGO

Stout legs are an advantage even for foreign visitors to this
mountain region, where those who cannot walk become the
victims of the " ka-
go ' ' and its kindred
instruments of tor-
ture.

The kago is not
a complicated sort of
conveyance, but it is
one that requires long
training on the part
of its would-be occu-
pant. Absolutely no
provision has been
made for Occidental
legs, which are both
much longer and less ^^rv.ng h.s cab

JAPAN — THE CITIES

303

^hotOKrapli by 1 iH...iii.ii.i

MY FRIEND FROM MINNFACOLIS

THI£ OTOMB TOGB

304

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Photograph by O. M. Poole

flexible than the Oriental article. A Japanese when riding
in a kago sits on his legs, but the foreigner, unless willing

Photograph by O. M. Poole

FUJI

JAPAN — THE CITIES 305

to submit to amputation, is advised to walk or else remain at
home. The men who carry kagos carry little else, save a
long staff and a skin so beautifully tattooed that the passenger
may while away the weary miles in studying the intricate
designs upon the bearer's back. A suit of tattoo is ample
clothing for a summer day. In fact, it is an ideal hot-weather

Photograph by O. M. Foolc

1-fJI

costume. It cannot be denied that it fits well, lasts a life-
time, and that it will never fade and never shrink.

As a closing experience in the Hakone region, we climb
to the famous mountain-pass called the " Otome Toge. " This
is one of the gateways leading from the Hakond valleys to the
broader valley from which the sacred mountain Fuji-no- Yama
rises in one grand sweep. The Japanese speak of their

3o6

JAPAN— THE CITIES

sacred mountain not as Fuji-Yama, but either as Fuji-no-
Yama, " Mountain of Fuji," or more commonly and lovingly
as Fuji San. The beautiful mountain is twelve thousand
three hundred and sixty-five feet high. To view the
sacred summit from the Otomd pass is the ambition of every
traveler, but seldom is it possible to realize it perfectly, for as
a rule she hides her snow-cone in a hood of clouds or vapor,

photograph by Tamamura

FUJI-NO-YAMA

exposing to disappointed eyes only the lower slopes which
look like a vast inclined plane leading from earth to heaven.
To-day, however, fortune favors us, and Fuji San stands
there, revealed in her most somber wintry aspect. Here
for a moment let us indulge in that esthetic pastime of
the cultured Japanese, called "Fuji-viewing." Ethereal
indeed this lovely mountain ! Even on near approach it

JAPAN— THE CITIES

307

seems intangible, as if it were but an illusion built of violet
mist and Hacked with slender drifts of cloud. In summer
Fuji wears a dainty crown of silver, and a diaphanous robe of
shadowy blue. In winter Fuji shrouds herself in a white
mantle that sometimes trails its icy hem in the green valleys
round about. But Fuji is not always robed in blue and white ;
moments there are when the sacred mountain is transfigured
by the glory of the sky. At sunset she stands forth in gor-
geous purple against a golden background — ^at sunrise a pink
halo hovers turban-like round her head, and as the dawn
advances, a pinkish veil unfolds and falls upon her snowy
shoulders. Then gradually the morning colors fade, the violet
mist rises from the valleys and, on the summit, fearfully far
above us, the snow gleams white and pure in the light of a
noonday sun. But even brighter is the gleaming of the snow
crown of the mountain mirrored in the surrounding lakes.

A FOOT-BRIDGB

3o8

JAPAN— THE CITIES

OUK EXPEDITION

A submarine Fuji is evoked by every lake or placid stream,
and oftentimes the unreal inverted vision is more beautiful
than the reality, unreal as that reality may seem.

The great charm of Japan lies in the seeming unreality of
things. I did not climb this mountain lest the charm be lost.

Photogcaph by Otis A. Pu

TEA-HOIISK DRAPED WITH BANNERS LEFT BY FUJI PILGRUUR

JAPAN— THE CITIES

309

I did not care to learn that it is nothing but a gritty ash-heap
piled more than twcKc thousand feet al)()\e the sea. Those
great magicians, light, atmosphere, and distance, transmute
the mass of ash and lava into a radiant vision of loveliness and
grandeur. Let us remember it as such. Surely no earthly
memory can give us purer pleasure. But even were we dis-
posed to climb, the season is too far advanced for us to dream

WAITING FtJR THK TKAIN

of an ascent. In July and August the mountain resembles a
gigantic ant-hill. More than ten thousand pilgrims, women
as well as men, swarm up the steep and well-worn paths,
sleep in rude huts, and in the early morning are the first of all
their co-religionists to greet the Sun Goddess, Ama-Terasu, as
with prayers and genuflections on the summit, they welcome

3IO

JAPAN — THE CITIES

the coming orb of day. It is said that the earth and
ashes brought down by pilgrims' feet reascend spontaneously
at night. It is now almost two centuries since Fuji's volcanic
crater emitted its last fiery breath, and since that time it has
slumbered peacefully, to all appearances wrapped in eternal
sleep. But although the mountain is no longer a menace to
the surrounding provinces, the same awful force that formerly
found an outlet through its crater now manifests itself in fre-
quent earthquake shocks ; and happy is the town or village

Photograph by Enami

JAPAN — THE CITIES

311

which has not at some time in its history been reduced to a
mere heap of debris. Thus we begin to comprehend why the
Japanese are content with impermanency. They are forced
by Providence to accept it. As has been said, "The earth-
quakes condemn Japan to perpetual simpHcity in building.
The very land revolts against the imposition of Western archi-
tecture, and occasionally even opposes the ~ new course of
traffic by pushing railroad lines out of level or out of shape, "
or even by tumbling steel railway-bridges from their supports.
Nor do Japan 's catastrophes come always in the form of earth-
quakes. Sometimes an earthquake-wave, or so-called "tidal
wave, ' ' sweeps inland for an incredible distance, and then,
receding, carries houses, temples, human beings out to sea.

312

JAPAN— THE CITIES

— in an hour, a happy, prosperous shore is given to deso-
lation. This, we remember, is what occurred at Kamakura.
Sometimes the terror comes in still more awful form.
In 1888 a great volcano in the north, known as Bandaisan,
literally exploded. It devastated an area of twenty-seven
square miles. It leveled forests, turned rivers from their
courses, and buried villages with their entire population in a
flow of seething mud. Lafcadio Hearn tells us of a super-
stitious old peasant who watched the whole cataclysm from a
neighboring peak " as unconcernedly as if he had been look-
ing at a drama. He saw a black column of ashes and steam
rise to the height of twenty thousand feet and spread out at
its summit in the shape of an umbrella, blotting out the sun ;
then he felt a strange rain pouring on him
hotter than the water of a bath, then all
became black, and he felt the moun-
tain beneath him shaking to its roots
and heard a crash of thunders that
seemed like the sound of the break-
ing of a world ; but he remained

By permlssioa

JAPAN— THE CITIES

313

quite still until everything was over. He had made up his
mind not to be afraid, deeming that all he saw and heard
was delusion wrought by the witchcraft of a fox."

Kyoto is the most attractive city of Japan. Formerly
the residence of the reij^iiing emperor, it is even now the

^mm ^^J

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1 JP^ tl.

IH^

■H^^^Ik* ^^^mmmmj ^^^^^^^ ^U ^B ^'^ ten'^V

Photograph by Enami

THE GREAT BELL

JAPAN— THE CITIES

stronghold of a proud conservatism that loves not the new
paths by which the nation is rushing headlong toward its new
ideals. At Kyoto even the hotels dedicated to the comfort of
the foreigner are not unpicturesque, and the hotel Yaami bears
to a certain extent the imprint of its quaint surroundings. It
stands on Maruyama, one of that historic range of hills that
like a verdured wall shuts in the Holy City. On the slopes
a chain of gorgeous temples and monasteries rose during past
centuries, making of these hills a sort of sacred rampart,
crowned with the citadels of old religions ; and between two
of the most ancient monasteries the Yaami Inn stands forth,
its numerous verandas commanding a panorama of the plain

in which Kyoto lies. The population

of the city is now much smaller

than in earlier years. In 1 868

Fhotoeraph by EnamI

photograph by Enaml

A BAMBOO AVENUE

JAPAN — THE CITIES 317

the Emperor removed his court to Tokyo, and since that time
Kyoto has been shrini<ing, and many points of interest once
well within the city are found at present in the open fields.
In the flood-tide of its prosperity this capital found its broad
and sheltered valley all too small, and so its sea of structures
rolled slowly up the surrounding slopes. To-day that tide is
at the ebb, only the temples having resisted the reflux, for
they still cling proudly to their hillside groves ; but as we
stand here, thinking of Kyoto's lordly past, our reverie is
rudely interrupted by a deafening boom, a sort of thunder-
clap, made musical. And not a hundred yards away we
find the source of this torrent of bronze music, for the
deep waves of sound proceed from a huge bell, a dome of
metal weighing almost a hundred tons. It has no metal
tongue, but is made to speak by means of a huge beam of
wood which, suspended horizontally from a scaffold, is swung,
end on, against the brazen mass, send-
ing out over the silent city a
sonorous din of quivering brass.
Not far from here we find
the Kiomizu Temple, a
place of worship high in
favor with the poorer
classes and unique in
situation. It over-
hangs a deep ravine
and is supported by a
scaffolding in which a
veritable forest of big
trees has been em-
ployed.

We notice that just
below the railing of the
temple-terrace there is a

Photograph by O. M. Poole

A BAMBUO CORRIDOR

3i8

JAPAN— THE CITIES

sort of picket-fence projecting at an angle of forty-five
degrees. ' ' What is it for ? " we ask. " To keep the people
from throwing rubbish into the ravine .' ' ' Not at all. It has
been placed there by the government to curb the exuber-
ant expressions of gratitude on the part of the ladies of the

l^ *

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Photograph by Otis A. Poole

TEA-PLANTS

congregation. Many a gentle little maid or wife having made
secret vows to the gods has leaped from yonder terrace, not
in disappointment, not in despair, but in pure thankfulness
because the gods of Kiomizu had answered some tearful
prayer or caused some blessing to descend upon the family of
the suppliant, who thus freely offers her life in payment of a
debt of gratitude. Strange, indeed, the Japanese idea of duty.
Continuing our ramble along this sacred slope we find our-
selves suddenly in one of the delightful bamboo avenues that
wind along Kyoto's guardian hills. Far above our heads the
feathery tips are unceasingly in motion, swaying softly with
the lightest breath, and, as they caress one another, making

JAPAN— THE CITIES

319

a gentle rustling sound that quite completes the charm.
Lovely they are, but indispensable as well. We cannot
picture a Japan without bamboo, for these same graceful trees
are put to the most varied uses ; their branches are twined
into the very network of the manufactures of Japan. And
then how rapidly they grow ! To-day a little sprig — next
week almost a tree.

A little farther on we pause before another Buddhist tem-
ple, and here let me remind you that it is to a priest of this
religion that we owe the pleasures of the cup that cheers but
not inebriates. For of the origin of the tea-plant the fol-
lowing legend is related : A
certain Buddhist saint, re-
nowned for rigorous living
and long unbroken vigils, one
night in spite of all his self-
control fell fast asleep. On
awakening he was so deeply
chagrined to think that he
had yielded to a human weak-
ness that, in pious anger, he
plucked out his eye-lashes
and cast them on the ground.
Then came the miracle. The
lashes took root, and from

Photograph by Ogawa

MIVANOSHITA

320

JAPAN — THE CITIES

them sprouted a new, strange plant, the tea-plant, whose
leaves have ever since possessed the power of keeping men
awake all night. May blessings be upon that saint !

The temples of Kyoto seem almost numberless, and yet
we found at the time of our visit two new temples rising from
the heart of this long-since-completed city. Incredible,
indeed, but true it is, that old wise Kyoto, not content with
her three thousand half-deserted temples, must needs con-
struct two more and make them grander, finer, and one of
them more enormous, than any of the boasted structures of
the past. What is more marvelous, the largest structure, the
Higashi Hongwanji, rises, not with the aid of government or
prince, as did the ancient shrines, but owes its being to the
common people and the peasants, who, by gifts of money and
material, of time and labor, have rendered possible this mighty
undertaking. Clever carpenters have given their strength
and skill to shape into pillars the gigantic trees that have

A MOUNTAIN OF CARPENTRY

JAPAN — THE CITIES

321

been cut down and hauled to the city as offerings by wor-
shipers whose homes are in far-distant forests. Those who
had nothing to give yet gave something ; witness the gigantic
coils of rope, indeed the strangest offering of all, and the
most pathetic, for, believe me, they are made of human hair.
Yes, it is true — poor peasant women, destitute of all save
their wealth of raven hair, sacrificed even their crowning
glory, and, braiding their jet black tresses into mighty ropes,
sent them to be employed in hauling timber for the construc-
tion of the temple. One of these cables is three hundred and
sixty feet in length and nearly three inches in diameter. And
now, the work accomplished, these coils of human hair
remain as a memorial of the faith of unknown thousands of
pious, gentle souls who have not hesitated to make sacrifice,
at the call of duty, even of their good looks. And yet we
have been told that Buddhism is a dying faith !

The Higashi Hongwanji cost no less than a full million
dollars and was seventeen years in building. It is a
hundred and twenty-seven feet in height, more
than two hundred feet in length. It is
a mountain of magnificent car-
pentry. There are beams forty-
two feet long;
pillars nine feet
in circumference.
The painting of
the altar-screens
cost ten thousand
dollars, and the
whole of this mil-
lion-dollar struc-
ture has been paid
for by the coppers
of the poor. A
21

HS OF HUMAN HAIR

322

JAPAN — THE CITIES

hundred thousand peasants came hither to attend the dedi-
cation. This looks as if the ancient Buddhist faith were very
much alive in the hearts of the common people of Japan.
I could of course lead you on from temple to temple
until the full three thousand have been visited, but I shall
make your penance light and ask you to visit only one
more — the famous Temple of the Thirty-three Thousand
Gods. Here we may see at one glance more deities than we
could see in a pilgrimage of forty days. The interior sug-
gests a grand-stand at a Jubilee procession, filled with spec-
tators from some strange Oriental paradise. A glittering
company of heavenly beings is assembled here as if to wit-
ness some imposing ceremony ; nor do we see them all.
Behind us are massed an equal number of silent brazen

figures, a host of
Amazons, brist-
ling with innum-
erable arms and
weapons, their
heads encircled
by elaborate gold-
en halos, their
faces wreathed in
that same super-
cilious Oriental
smile — that smile
with which the
gods of the East
look down upon
terrestrial events.
Continuing our
ramble through
the streets, we
pause to ask the

RELIGIOUS MKNDICANTS

JAPAN — THE CITIES

323

meaning of a curious mound which occupies the center of
a square. This, they inform us, is the " Mimi Zuka, " and
relate that in the good old days it was a custom for victorious
generals to send home to the capital the heads of all the
enemies slain in battle by their armies. The rival generals senl
by Hideyoshi to conquer Korea, three hundred years ago, slew

Photograph hy I{iiami

SOMK OF THE THIK TV- 1 HKbE THOUSAND <.ol>S

so many foes that their small fleets could not contain the heads ;
so struck by a brilliant idea, they snipped off all the ears and
noses of their slain adversaries, salted them carefully, and
then shipped to Kyoto manj' a cargo of assorted Korean
features, and these after being counted and their number
recorded, were buried in this common grave. A tombstone

324

JAPAN — THE CITIES

was then raised in memory of this multitude of nasal and auricu-
lar appendages pertaining to the vanquished Sons of Cho-sen.
Leaving Kyoto, a delightful journey of one day by rikisha
brings us to the site of Nara, another vanished capital of Old
Japan. Nara was one of those famous metropolises that suc-
ceeded one another in the past. As has been said, no fewer
than sixty cities have been in turn metropolis and capital.
Most of them now have disappeared. A few, like Kamakura
and Nara, survive as unimportant villages, because of their tem-
ples or their religious associations. Two of them only, Tokyo
and Kyoto, rank among the living cities of to-day. A thou-
sand years ago Nara was at the zenith of her prosperity and
power. The sacred Emperor dwelt within her gates. Her
streets were crowded with princes and pilgrims come to do
homage and to worship there ; but as to-day we wander
through the famous temple groves of
Nara, we meet only the tame deer that
haunt the forest shades, and by their
presence add to the impressive pictur-
esqueness of the silent avenues. Nara
was the cradle of
Buddhism in Ja-
pan. Here the
new faith brought
by the priests
from China was
fostered by the
sovereigns of the
seventh and the
eighth centuries.
Here for the first
time in Japan was
preached the gos-
pel of Gautama

THE MOUND OF THK KOREAN EARS

JAPAN— THE CITIES

325

Buddha, the doctrine of salvation by self-perfectionment and
meditation. The teachings of Buddha, spread broadcast over
all the land, quickly won the hearts of men, and threatened the
extinction of the na'tive Shinto faith. The people enthusiastic-
ally embraced this new religion w hich taught that there was

FhotOETTftph by Hnami

ONE OF THK NAKA i iiBAVLh.S

no evil except the slavery to bodily desires and passions, and
promised eternal peace to those who should by prayer and med-
itation attain the state of Buddhahood and be absorbed into
the infinite soul of the universe, or, as it is expressed, enter
Nirvana. But the Buddhist faith no longer reigns alone at
Nara, for a Shinto temple occupies a place of honor in this
grove, contrasting in its severe simplicity with the elaborate-
ness of the earlier shrines. There is in the simple ritual of
Shintoism, in the plainness and bareness of its temples, and
in the absence of all idols — a dignity that charms us. The
priests of Shinto, like the priests of Protestantism, are not

326

JAPAN — THE CITIES

debarred from matrimony.
Many of them train their
daughters to perform
the sacred " Ka
gura, " a dance
which dates
from the myth-
ical period and
is one of the
most solemn
rites of the relig-
ion. On my arrival
at the temple, a soli-
tary visitor, I found the
sacred dancers all arrayed in
their immaculate robes, prepared to go through, at the pilgrim's

THH SHINTO
CORYPHEES AT NARA

rbotogiaph by Klmbel

KAGURA DANCERS

JAPAN — THE CITIES

327

bidding, the slow, calm movements of the Kagura. I signify
my willingness to pay the accustomed fee, and at my words,
the priests don their ceremonial robes, an ancient dame
brings forth a koto, and to an accompaniment of twang-
ing strings and deep-drawn groans from the men, the dance
itself begins. The sacred ballet-girls are scarcely more
than fourteen years of age, but perform their task with a
statue-like gravity ; they glide softly about, waving a sprig of
green or a cluster of gilded bells. When the dance is done,
they sink to the ground as if exhausted, and the monotonous
chanting slowly dies away. It is at Nara also that we find
the most hideous bronze Buddha of Japan. Though a seem-
ing travesty of Kamakura's noble image, it is in reality much
older and much larger ; but as a work of art this bronze is
utterly beneath consideration. Its ugly head has been four
times melted off by the burning of its temple ; and we cannot
but regret the ill-advised generosity that has made possible
the re-casting of so execrable a countenance.

328

JAPAN— THE CITIES

Photoj^raph by Kiiiibei

THE DAI BUTSU ul ;...;;.-.

Our route is now westward to the famous Inland Sea.
The Inland Sea is a calm expanse of imprisoned ocean,
bounded by the great islands of Japan, — Hondo, Shikoku,
and Kiushiu, — and dotted everywhere with innumerable
tiny isles, usually bare and treeless, but of most fantastic
shapes, and in the autumn sunsets glowing with rich shades
of red and gold.

JAPAN — THE CITIES

329

Every town, every litUe fishing-village, has its special
charm ; but everywhere ttie natives reply to our enthusiastic
raptures, "Wait until you have seen Miyajima, the Sacred
Island. Then may you praise the beauties of our land. ' ' And
so it is with undisguised delight that we behold for the first
time the summits of that much-reverenced isle ; and our im-
patience to arrive increases as our coolies swiftly cover the
intervening miles. As we approach, we note with pleasure
that, unlike the other islands, Miyajima is not treeless and
rocky, but buried in luxuriant verdure. To reach it we em-
bark in a small boat and slowly cross the narrow strait that
lies between the mainland and Miyajima. Soon our sampan

glides beneath a stately, wave- washed torii. The broad
arms of the sacred gateway are extended as if to welcome the
fisher pilgrims who come to pray at the temple — a temple
that appears to float upon the surface of the bay. Beyond

330

JAPAN — THE CITIES

this torii everything is holy,
former days the faithful held
the isle in such respect
that dogs were not per
mitted to exist upon it;
and, what is stranger
still, no human be-
ing was permitted
either to take up
the burden of ex-
istence or to shuffle
off this mortal coil
upon its hallowed

Photograph by Enami

THE TEMPLE OK MIYAJIMA

/, -^v

JAPAN— THE CITIES

333

deaths were prohibited by the strict canons of the Buddhist
church. A traveler who should prove to be so inconsiderate
as to die at Miyajima would never be allowed to make a
second visit ; accordingly we solemnly resolve that as courtesy
demands it, we shall try to live at least until we reach some
other place, a place where we may die in peace without
offending the religious scruples of an entire population.

We do not wonder that the Japanese have sanctified the
island, for we know that to the Japanese everything that is
beautiful or strange is also holy. Even to us Miyajima
appears as a glorious out-of-door cathedral, with pinnacles
of rock for spires, maple-decked valleys for its aisles and

Photo^aph by O^awa

THE TORll OF MIYAJIMA

334

JAPAN — THE CITIES

chapels, great trees for pillars, the beauties of all nature for
adornment, and for a dome, the eternal vault of blue. Every
day of our stay reveals new beauties, and at last we enthusi-
astically agree that Miyajima merits well its title as one of the

!■

'^^1

■ •

.mm -■'_"' y ,„^^

FROM MY WINDOW AT MIYAJIMA

famous "San Kei " or "Three most lovely sights" in all
Japan. Even the little tea-house where we make our home
is more than commonly attractive. In it they say no foreign-
ers have ever lodged before ; but I doubt not that the bar-
barous stranger is now a familiar figure in its dainty, matted
rooms : that he has often pushed aside its paper windows and
breathed the same sigh of delight as he looked down upon the
village there below. Here is one of the most ' ' real ' ' corners
of the Real Japan ; and when in December, 1892, I looked
upon it, the thought that mine was the only foreign eye to
feast on all this quaintness and this beauty gave me a sense

JAPAN — THE CITIES

335

of ownership in it all — the proud pagoda on the cliff — the
modest dwellings far below — the granite stairways and the
terraced streets, — of all these I took possession; and as I
sat there in my tea-house window and looked out upon my
realm of beauty, framed by the distant hazy mountains, encir-
cled by the calm, blue waters of the Inland Sea, I was more
proudly content with my possessions than were any of the
old-time princes who surveyed rich subject-provinces from
the upper gables of their feudal castles. But of all my

empire the scene my memory will last surrender, — the scene
that is always first evoked by the mere mention of Japan, is
that lovely vista from the pagoda on the promontory. From
the tall cliff I looked upon the gorgeous sunsets of those short

336 JAPAN — THE CITIES

December days, and lingering in the twilight watched the
mysterious outline of the sacred Torii as it faded slowly into
the gathering blackness of the night, — and the vanishment of
that symbolic arch always reminded me that very soon my
days in fair Japan would pass from the joyous light of the
Present into the sober twilight of the Past ; that it would soon
be time for me to say a final "Sayonara" — a farewell.
And how perfectly that musical word expresses what we feel
in leaving fair Japan — for its literal meaning voices regret
and gratitude. ' ' Sayonara " — "if it must be so. ' ' But as I
breathed the word, I found a consolation in the hope that as
this scene was always conjured back by the dawning of the
morrow's sun, so might the coming of some future morn
bring to me on its golden wings the promise of another visit
to Japan. Other richer journeys may await me, but none
will have, for me the same peculiar charm, nor in remem-
brance give the same enthusiastic thrill ; for the Japan that I
have tried to show you and to tell you of, is the Japan that
fascinated me when I was twenty-two.

Index to This Volume

Noll'.: JuiKiiiew words arc s[)oken practically without any stressor acccnl. an<I syllulilcs,
IS a Ki-ncral rtllf. are pronounced equally and snioothly. Where accents apiiear in tlie

i.ll.iiiiiiiiT liiilnv tlintr jrlilif— ito ttiii ] m f u-tl-tn rit a\/llnH)l> urilii-ll ull/\lltrl mi-iiiim iiiilip uli.il.» u*b»....

as ii K<>>^><>> III", rti^ iiiuiioiiiiccu ciiurtiiy wiin niinjuiiiiy . »» iii-it; rtcn:nv» apjNrar in ine
following index, they indicate the imi>ortant syllable, whicli should receive only slittht titrciw.

Ktjrea :

Exclusion of priests, 89.
Seoul moi\ument, 33.
White Budda, 89.
"Bully Brake," Peking Pass, 82.
Cabs, Yokohama cabstand, 126.
See, also, Jinrikishas; Vehicles.
Cascades, Japan, 162, 166.
Cemeteries. See Tombs.
Chemulpo, shee mul poe', |x)rt of
Korea :
Approach to, 9-11.
Description of town, 11-12.
Gigi boys, 13.
Hotel, 12.

Japanese characteristics, 12.
Railway to Seoul, 14-15.
Cherry-trees, Tokyo, 230, 242-247.
China, road from Seoul to Peking,

78-82.
Chong-No, bell of, Seoul, 32.
Chopsticks, Japan, 174, 198, 236.
Cho-Sen, Japanese name for Korea,

.S, 77.
Chrysanthemums, Japanese culti-
vation of, 248-249.
Chuzenji, Lake, Japan, 162-170.
Corea. See Korea.
Costumes. See Dress.
Custom-house, Yokohama, 125.
Dai Nippon, dye nip'on, "great

Japan," 117.
Dancing:

Oeisha girls, 263-264.
Kagura, sacred dance, 326.
Korean dancing-girls, 108-109.
Dress:
Japan:

Court dress, foreign craze, 270.
Fishermen, .scarcity of dress, 129.
Kuramayas, inland, 187-188, 305.
Korea :

Hats, 14, 67-74.
Men of fashion, 31.
Mourning costume, 67-68.
Pak-Kee-Ho, costume, 27.
Seoul women, 22-24.
Traveling companions, Chemul-
po to Seoul, 14.
Earthquakes, Japan. 310-311.
Emberly Hotel, at Seoul, 17.
Emperor of Japan, 269-270.
Emperor of Korea, 6, 37-52, 86,

106-110.
"Empress of Japan," voyage to
\'okohama, 124.

Adzumagawa Valley, ad zoom ah-

gah'wah, Japan, 204.
Agriculture, Japanese women in the

fields, 297.
Ako, ah ko, story of the Forty-
seven Ronin, 274.
Allen, Dr. H. N., U. S. Minister to

Korea, 14-15, 52.
Ama-terasu, ah mah tair ah soo,
Japanese sun goddess, 117, 199,
309.
Archery, in Seoul, 105.
Asakusa, ah sahk'sa:
Festival, 250-252.

Temple of the Mercy Goddess, 250.
Ashio Pass, ah shee'oh, Japan,

182, 184.
Babies, Japanese, carried on back,

209.
Bamboo, avenues of, Japan, 318-

319.
Bandaisan, bahn dye sahn', volcano,

312.
Basha, bah'sha, Japanese convey-
ance, 210-211.
Baths, Japan:

Hot water, 170-172.
Ikao, 193.

Yumoto, sulphur baths, 177-181.
Bells:

Kyoto, 317.

Seoul, bell of Chong-\o, 32.
Birthdays, Japanese. 209.
Bostwick, Mr., Seoul Electric Rail-
way Co., 55-56.
Bow, of Japanese girl in greeting, 272.
Bridges, Nikko, 138.
Brown, MacLeavy, in Korean ser-
vice, 55.
Buddhism:
Japan:

Dai Butsu monument, Kamakura,

286-293.
Legend as to origin of tea-plant,

319.
Lotus-flower, symbol of faith,

289.
Nara, cradle of Buddhism, 324-

327.
Nikko, uncountable Buddhas,

138.
Scriptures, Buddhist, in Nikko

temple, 148.
Temples. See that title.
Thirty-three thousand gods,
temple, 322.

(10)

337

Index — Continued

Enoshima, en oh shee mah, island of,

visit to, 293.
Eppinger, Louis, manager of Yoko-
hama hotel, 128.
"Fat Prince," Ye Chai Soon, cousin
of Emperor of Korea, 84, 106-
107.
Festivals, Japanese "Matsuri,"

250-253.
Feudal System, abolition of, Japan,

120, 123.
Fishermen, Japanese, 129.
Flowers:

Japanese cultivation, 247-249.
Lotus-flower, symbol of Buddhist
faith, 289.
Forests, Nikko forest avenue, 136.
Fortv-seven Ronin, Japanese story,

274.
Fruit, god of unripe, Japan, 300.
Fuji-no- Yama, foo'jee no yah'mah,
sacred mountain of Japan:
Eruptions, 310.
Pilgrims, 309-310.
Views of, 174, 241, 306-308.
Fujita Chaya, foo jee tah chah yah,

Yokohama tea-house, 132.
Funerals, Seoul funeral processions,

56.
Fusan, foo sahn', Korean seaport,

5-6.
Futons, Japanese beds, 191, 242.
Gates:

Haruna shrine, 199.
Nikko, 148-151, 156.
Seoul gates, 10, 74-75.
Gautama Buddha, gou iah'mah,

image, Kamakura, 286.
Geisha, gay'sha:
Charm of, 258.
Dances, 263-264.
Description, 254-264.
Monkeys, geisha likened to, 259.
Music and singing, 264.
Yao Matsu, 235.
Gigi boys, chee'gee, Chemulpo, 13.
Godo Inn:

Beds, futons, 191.

Dinner, 188.

Interest of inn-keeper and family,

191.
Table and chairs, 188.
Gods:

Buddha. See Buddhism.
Nikko. See that title.
Gratitude to, expression of, 318.
Unripe fruit, god of, Japan, 300.
Grand Hotel, Yokohama, 128.
Grief, Japanese expression of, 268.

Guides:

"Bov" Tsuni Horiuchi, 129, 183,

188, 297.
Pak-Kee-Ho, 26-28. 107.
Tamaki San, 183-184.
Hair and hair-dressing:
Japan, 203, 208.
Korea :

Japanese reforms, 43.
Women, hair of several genera-
tions, 23-24.
Ropes of human hair, 321.
Han, river and towns, Korea, 76-77.
Hara Kiri, hah'rah kee'ree, Japanese

mode of suicide, 276-278.
Haruna, lake and shrine, Japan:
Meal in native style, 197.
Shinto shrine, 198-202.
Hats, Korean, 14, 67-74.
Hearn, Lafcadio, quotations from,

259, 268,281-282,312.
Higashi Hongwanji, new temple,

Kyoto, 320-322.
Highways. See Roads.
Hissing, Japanese greeting, 298-299.
Hot Baths, Japanese, 170-172.
Hotels:
Japan:

Godo Inn, 188-191.
Ikao, Hotel Muramatsu, 194.
Kyoto, Yaami Inn, 314.
Tokyo, Imperial Hotel, 228.
Yadoyas, Japanese Inns, 12,

169-170.
Yao Matsu, 230-242.
Yokohama Grand Hotel, 128.
Korea, Seoul Station Hotel, 17.
Housekeeping, in Japan, simplicitv

of, 296-297.
Ikao, ik ah oh:

Bathing places, 193.
Departure from, 202.
Early rising, 197.
Hotel Muramatsu, 194.
Uptown residence, 192-194.
Industry, Japanese lantern-making,

252-253.
Inland Sea, Japan, visit to, 328-335.
Ireland, greenness compared with

Japan, 281.
lyeyasu and lyemitsu, ee yeh yah'
SOD, ee yeh meel'soo, once rulers
of Japan:
Story of, 152-156.
Temples and tombs, 136-151, 156-
160.
Izanagi and Izanami, ee zah nah'-
gee, Japanese Adam and Eve,
116-117.

338

Index — Continued

Japan:

Adziimagawa Valley, 204.

ARriciilture, 297.

Asakusa, 25()-2.S2.

Ashio Pass, 182, 184.

Baths. Sec that title.

Birthdays, 209-210.

"Boy" Tsuni Horiuchi, 129, IS3,

188,297.
Buddhism. See that title.
Buildings, construction of, 194.
Children:

Babies carried on back, 209.

Festivals, observation of child
life, 251.
Chivalry, story of Forty-seven

Ronin, 274.
Chop.sticks, 174, 189,236.
Chuzenji, Lake, 162-170.
Civilization, 1 19.
Cleanliness of people, 170, 208,

241, 296.
Dai Nippon, 117.
Dress. Sec that title.
Earthquakes, 310.
Emperor and Court:

Annual garden party, 270.

Foreign dress, 270.

Tokyo palace, 269.
Enoshima, island of, 293.
Farmers' houses, 296.
Feudal system, abolition of, 120-

123.
Flowers, cultivation of, 247-249.
Fuji-no- Yama. See that title.
Geisha girls, 263-264.
Government, 120-123.
Gratitude to gods, expression of,

318.
Grief, expression of, 268.
Hair, dressing, 203, 208.
Hara Kiri, 276-278.
History, ll.S-llS, 1.S2-15S, 273.
Hotels. See that title.
Inland Sea, 328-335.
lyeyasu and lyemitsu, tombs and

history of, 137-160.
Izanagiand Izanami, 116-117.
Jinrikishas. See that title.
Kamakura, ancient capital, 286-

293, 312.
Kyoto. See that title.
Meals, native style, 197.
Miyajima, sacred island. See that

title.
Mythology, 116-118.
Nantai San, holy mountain, 172-

174.
Nature, Japanese love for, 247.
Nikko. See that title.

Origin of Japanese race, 116-118.
Perry's expedition, 293.
Politeness of people, 268, 282, 298-

299.
Sake, Japanese wine, 214-218,

260-263.
"Sayonara," farewell, 336.
Shintoism. See that title.
Shoguns, rule and burial-place,

273.
Silk industry, 204.
Stoves, 242. >

Street life and sights, 264-268.
Sun goddess, 117, 199,309.
Tea-houses. See that title.
Tea-plant, origin, legend, 319.
Temples. See that title.
Tenruygawa rapids, 214, 218-224.
Theaters, 276-279.
Tokaido, highway between capi-
tals, 293-296.
Tokyo. See that title.
Torii, 139, 329, 336.
Vehicles. See that title.
Villages, length of, 207.
Voyage from Vancouver to Yoko-
hama, 124.
Waraji, Japanese sandals, 162,

183, 185, 301.
Waterfalls, 162, 166.
Women, 208, 263-264, 272,296-297.
Jimmu Tenno, jee'moo, conquest

of Japan, 118.
Jinrikishas, Japan:
Fare, 128.
First ride, 127.
Interior of Japan, men's dress,

187-188.
Street-car rival, 253.
Tokyo, 267.

Travel in Japanese interior, 211-
218.
Kago, kah'go, Japanese conveyance,

.?02, 305.
Kagura dancers, Nara, 326.
Kamakura, kah mah koo'rah:
Dai Butsu monument, 286-293.
Former capital of Japan, 286, 290.
Tidal wave, 312.
Karatnon, kah rah moan', Nikko

temple gate, 151.
Kegon-no-taki, kay'goan no tah'kee,

Japanese waterfall, 160.
Kiomizu Temple, kee oh mee'tsoo,

Kyoto, 317.
Korea, ko ree'ah:

Allen, Dr., U. S. minister. 14-15, 52.
Boys, hat-wearing and matrimonial

pros|iccts, 73.
Buddhism, ii, 89

339

Index — Continued

Chemulpo. See that title.
Cho-sen, Japanese name for Ko-
rea, 5.
Customs and manners, 18, 22-24,

31, 67-74, 82-83.
Dancing girls, 108-109.
Dress. See that title.
Emperor:

Dancing girls, 108-110.

Gifts of, 106, 108.

Interest in motion picture ma-
chine, 86, 106-108.

Reign, troubleand tragedy, 37-52.
Foreigners in Korean service, 54-56.
Fusan, seaport, 5-6.
Gentlemen, country, 82-84.
Hair-dressing methods, 23-24. 43.
Han River and towns, 76-77.
Hats, 18,67-74.
History, 6, 38-51.
Japan in Korea, 38-51, 89-92, 111-

112,323.
Laundering, 31.
Peking Pass, 78-82.
Queen, power and tragic end, 44-

50, 94-101.
Railway, Chemulpo to Seoul, 14-15.
Religion, lack of, 91.
Seoul. See that title.
Superstition, influence and power,

92-102.
Tea, little known, 85.
Teeth, perfectness of, 28.
Villages, similarity of, 86.
Women, 22-24, 31, 44-50, 94-101.
Ye Chai Soon, Prince, 84-86, 106-

107.^
Kotsuke, kot soo kay, story of the

Forty-seven Ronin, 274.
Kyoto, kee oh' to:

Bamboo avenues, 318.
Bell, sound from, 317.
Journey from Tokyo, 281-313.
Kiomizu Temple and picket-fence,

317-318.
"Mimi Zuka," meaning of, 323.
Temples, 314, 317, 320-322.
Yaami Inn, 314.
Lake Chuzenji, choo zen'jee:
Road to, 162-169.
Tea-houses on route, 163-165.
Traveling companions, 163.
Waterfalls on route, 162, 166.
Yadoya, 169-170.
Lanterns, Japanese:

Art of manufacturing, 252.
Matsuri decorations, 252.
Nikko bronze lanterns, 146-147.
Shiba, stone lanterns, 273.
Laundering Methods, Korea, 31.

Life of Nations, recorded by motion

pictures, 62-66.
Lotus Flower, symbol of Buddhist

faith, 289.
Matsuri, Japanese festivals:
Asakusa. 250-252.
Cyeno Park. 253-254.
Mercy goddess, temple of, Asakusa,

250.
"Mimi Zuka," Kyoto, 323.
Miyajima, mee yah jee'mah, sacred
island, 329.
Births and deaths prohibited, 330,

Hi.
Tea-house, 334.
Torii, 329, 336.
Modesty, Japanese ideas of, 181.
Monkeys, geisha likened to, 259.
Mortuary Court, Nikko, 156.
Motion Photography:
Aim of, 62-66.

Korean Emperor, interest in ma-
chine, 86, 106-108.
Seoul bull-cart incident, 75-76.
Mountains. See Fuji-no- Yumii ;

Naniai San.
Mourning Costume, Korean, 67-68.
Mukojima, moo ko jee'mah, avenue

of cherry-trees, 230.

Mutso Hito, moot soo hee'to.

Emperor of Japan, meeting, 270.

Mythology, Japanese. 116-118.

Nagasaki, nah gah sah'kee, port on

route to Korea, 5.
Nantai San, holy mountain:
Ascent, 172-173.
Descent, 174.

View of Fuji-no- Yama from sum-
mit, 174.
Nara, nah'rah, capital of old Japan:
Buddha, image of, 327.
Buddhism, beginnings of , 324-325.
Kagura dance, 326.
Past prosperity, 324.
Shintoism, 325.
Nature, Japanese love for, 247.
Nikko, neek'ko, temples of Japan:
Bridges, 138.

Buddhas, uncountable, 138.
Buddhist scriptures, literary labors

of the faithful, 148.
Conundrums, architectural, 145.
Gates:

Karamon, 151.
Mortuary court, 156.
Yomeimon, 148-151.
Gods:

Crimson gods, 141.
Prayer pellets, 142.
Eviction of, 141.

340

Index — Continued

Lanterns of bronze, 146-147.
Mortuary court, 156.
Mysteriousness to western minds,

14.S-146.
Pilgrimages, 1.37.
Repository of artistic riches nf

Japan, 147.
Torii, l.W.

Views from mausoleum, 160.
Ninigi, in Japanese mythology, 118.
Nirvana, nir vah'nah, the Buddhist

idea of heaven, 325.
O Haru, Empress of Japan, 270.
Otoni6 Tog6, ascent of mountain-
pass, 305.
Pagoda, Buddhist monument, Seoul,

3i.
Pak-Kee-Ho, Mr., Seoul guide:
Cost of services, 28.
Costume, 27.
Picturesqueness. 26.
Warning as to motion picture

machine, 107.
Wife and family, 24-32.
Palaces :
Seoul, 35-37.

Tokyo, palace of the Emperor, 269.
Parks :

Seoul, 102-105.
Tokvo, 253, 273.
Peking Pass, Korea, 78-82.
Perry, Commodore, Japanese expedi-
tion. 293.
Picnics, Japanese, 254.
Pine trees, place of the eight hun-
dred pine trees, 230-242.
Plays. See Theaters.
Politeness, of Japanese, 268, 282,

298-299.
Population:
Seoul, 15.
Tokyo, 228.
Prayer Pellets, Nikko deities, 142.
Prince Ye Chai Soon, 84-86, 106-

107.
Princes, Tokugawa, tombs at Shiba,

273.
Queen of Korea, power and tragic

end, 44-50, 94-101.
Railway, Chemulpo to Seoul, 14-15.
Rapids, Tenryugawa, 214, 218-224.
Religion:

Buddhism. See that title.
Lack of, Korea, 91.
Shintoism. See that title.
Rice, Japan:
Rice-mills, 207.
Threshing, 297.
Rikishas. See Jinrikishas.

Roads :

lapan, Tokaido highway between

capitals, 293-296.
Korea:
China, road to, Peking Pass,

78-82.
Seoul, to new imperial tomb, 98.
Peking Pass, 78-82.
Ronin, roh'nin, Forty-seven, Jap-
anese story, 274.
Ropes of Human Hair, Kyoto, 321.
Sacred Park, Shiba, 273.
Sak£, sah'ke, Japanese wine:
Effects, 263.

Money to runners, 214-218.
Serving, etc., 260.
Sampans:

Chemulpo, 10-11.
Yokohama, 125.
Sandals, Japanese waraji:

Votive offering in temple, 301.
Worn on tramp, 162, 183-185.
Sands, Mr., Minister of Korean

Household Department, 54.
Sayonara, sy yo nah'rah, Japanese,

farewell, 336.
Scriptures, Buddhist, in Nikko

temple, 148.
Seoul, so' 111, capital of Korea:

American enterprise, 19-26, 55-62,

99, 111-112.
Arches, old and new, on road to

China, 78.
Bell of Chong-No, 32.
Buddhist monument, 3i.
Funeral processions, 56.
Gates, city, 19-21, 74-75.
Hotel, house of Mr. Emberly, 17.
Imperial palace, abandoned, 35-37.
Laborers excavating with single

shovel, 18.
Missionary buildings, 57, 89.
Park, archery exercise, 105.
Population, 15.
Progress, elements of, 19-21, 110-

112.
Pronunciation of name, 15-16.
Quaintness of, 5.
Railway from Chemulpo, 14-15.
Road to China, 78-82.
Sleeping on car-tracks, 59-60.
Spirit scare-crows, 37.
Streets, condition and sights, 66-67.
Suburban villages, 86.
Tortoise, of stone, 33-34.
Trollev-cars, 19-26, 55-62.
Walls of city. 19-20, 35, 74-75.
Women, 22-24, 31.
Shiba, shee'bah, sacred park, Tokyo,
273.

341

Index — Continued

Shintoism, Japanese religion:
Definition, 198-199.
Hariina shrine, 199-202.
Kagura dance, 326.
Nara, 325.
Revival, 140.
Shoes, Japanese sandals, 162, 183-

185, 301.
Shoguns, rule and burial-place in

Japan, 273.
Silk Industry, Japan, 2C4.
Spirit scare-crows, Seoul, 37.
Station Hotel, Seoul, 17.
Steps:

Japanese temples, 301.
Nikko tomb, 156.

Yokohama, tea-house of the hun-
dred steps, 130-136.
Stoves, Japanese, 242.
Street-cars:

Seoul, 19-26, 55-62.
Tokyo, 253.
Sugawa, Mr., Japanese friend at

Yao Matsu, 232.
Sulphur Baths, Yomoto, 177-181.
Sumida River, Tokyo, 229, 242.
Sun Goddess, Japan, 117, 199, 309.
Ta-han, native name for Korea, 6.
Tai Wen Koon, political power in

Korea, 47.
Tamaki San, lam'ah kee, Japanese

guide, 183-184.
Tattooing, Japanese runners, 187,

305.
Tea:

Japan, origin of tea-plant, legend,

319.
Korea, tea little known in, 85.
Tea-houses, Japanese:

Chuzenji, road to, 163-165.
Miyajimi, 334.

Yokohama tea-house of the
hundred steps, 130-136.
Teeth, Korean, pcrfcctness of, 28.
Temples, Japanese:

Asakusa, temple of the Mercy

Goddess, 250.
Kyoto, 314, 317, 320-322.
Sandals, native offering, 301.
Stairways, 301.
Tenryugawa Rapids, 214, 218-224.
Theaters, Japanese;

Attendance at play, 279.
Change of scene, 278.
Forty-seven Ronin drama, 276.
Thirty-three Thousand Gods,

temple of, Kyoto, 322.
Threshing Rice, Japan, 297.
Tidal Waves, Japan, 311.

Tokaido, toe kye'doe, highway be-
tween Japanese capitals, 293-
296.
Tokugawa, Princess, tombs at Shiva,

273.
Tokyo, toe'kyo:

Appearance and general descrip-
tion, 228.
Cherry-trees, 230, 242-247.
Chrysanthemum display, 249.
Foreign innovations, 119.
Imperial Hotel, 228.
Journey to Kyoto, 281-313.
Matsuri, festivals, 250-254.
Mukojima, avenue of cherry-trees,

230.
Palace of the Emperor, 269.
Parks, 253, 273.
Population, 228.
Shiba, sacred park, 273.
Sumida River, 229, 242.
Theaters, 276-279.
Uyeno Park, beauties of, 253.
Wrestling Pavilion, visit to, 280-

281.
Yao Matsu, aristocratic suburb,
230-242.
Tombs:

Korean queen, tombs of finger, 50,

94-101.
Nikko temples. See Nikko.
Shiba, burial-place of Shoguns, 273.
Torii, loh'ree ee, Japanese:
Mivajimi, 329, 336.
Nikko, 139.
Tortoise, Seoul curio, 33.
Trees, in Japan:

Bamboo avenues, 318-319.
Cherry-trees, 230, 242-247.
Trolley-cars, Seoul, 19-26, 55-62.
Tsuni Horiuchi, Japanese "boy,"

129, 183, 188,279.
Unripe Fruit, god of, Japan, 300.
Uyeno Park, beauties of, 253.
Vancouver, voyage from, to Yoko-
hama, 124.
Vehicles, Japan:
Basha, 210-211.
Jinrikishas. See that title.
Kago experiences, 302, 305.
Vendetta, Japanese, story of the

forty-seven Ronin, 274-277.
Volcanoes, Japan, 310, 312.
Walls, Seoul, 35, 74-75, 19-20.
Waraji, war ah'jee, Japanese .san-
dals, 162, 183-185, ,«)1.
Watarase Valley, 'cvali tar ah'se,

Japan, 184.
Water, Korea, all water regarded as
pure, 83.

342

Index— Continued

Waterfalls, Japan:
("huzciiji, 162, 166.
KcKon-no-taki, 166.
"White Buddha," Korea, 89.
Wine, Japanese, sake, 214-218, 260-

263.
Women :
Japanese:

Agricultural labor, 297.
Bow, 272.

Geisha. See that title.
Hair-dressinK, 208.
Housekeeping, 296.
Korea n :

Dress, 22-24.
Hair, 23-24.

Laundering methods, 31.
Queen power and tragic end,
tombs of finger, 44-50, 94-101.
Wrestling Pavilion, Tokyo, 280-

281.
Yaami Inn, Kyoto, 314.
Yadoyas, yah dolt yahs, country inns,
Japan;
Chemulpo, 12.
Chuzenji, 169-170.

Yao Matsu, yah'oh mah'tsoo, Tokyo

inn, 230-242.
Ye Chal Soon, Korean Prince:

"Fat Prince," title, 84, 106-107.

Interest in motion-picture machine
86, 106.

Invitation to Imperial palace, 107.

Visit to, 84-86.
Yokohama, yoh koh hah'mah, Japan :

Arrival, 125.

"Boy" Tsuni Horiuclii, 129.

Cabstand, 126.

Custom-house, 125.

Fishermen, .scarcity of dress.

Foreign settlement, 131.

Jinrikisha, first ride in, 127.

Shipping, important seaport,

Square, un-Japanese aspect,

Tea-house, of the Hundred Steps,
130-136.

Voyage from Vancouver, 124.
Yomeimon, yoe me i mone, Nikko

temple gate, 148-151.
Yumoto, yav moh'ioh, sulphur-
baths, 177-181.

129.

128.
125.

343

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